The government is a vast, complex system that Americans pay for, rebel against, rely upon, dismiss, and celebrate. It's also our shared resource for addressing the biggest problems of society. And it's made up of people, mostly unrecognized and uncelebrated, doing work that can be deeply consequential and beneficial to everyone.

Michael Lewis invited his favorite writers to find someone doing an interesting job for the government and write about them in a special in-depth series for the Washington Post. The stories they found are unexpected, riveting, and inspiring, including a former coal miner devoted to making mine roofs less likely to collapse, saving thousands of lives; an IRS agent straight out of a crime thriller; and the manager who made the National Cemetery Administration the best-run organization, public or private, in the entire country. Each essay shines a spotlight on the essential behind-the-scenes work of exemplary federal employees.

Whether they're digitizing archives, chasing down cybercriminals, or discovering new planets, these public servants are committed to their work and universally reluctant to take credit. Expanding on the Washington Post series, the vivid profiles in Who Is Government? blow up the stereotype of the irrelevant bureaucrat. They show how the essential business of government makes our lives possible, and how much it matters.

The power of the presidential pardon has our national attention now more than ever before. In The Pardon, New York Times bestselling author and CNN legal commentator Jeffrey Toobin provides a timely and compelling narrative of the most controversial presidential pardon in American history--Gerald Ford's pardon of Richard Nixon, revealing the profound implications for our current political landscape, and how it is already affecting the legacies of both Presidents Biden and Trump.

In this deeply reported book, Toobin explores why the Founding Fathers gave the power of pardon to the President and recreates the behind-the-scenes political melodrama during the tumultuous period around Nixon's resignation. The story features a rich cast of characters, including Alexander Haig, Nixon's last chief of staff, who pushed for the pardon, and a young Justice Department lawyer named Antonin Scalia, who provided the legal justification.

Ford's shocking decision to pardon Nixon was widely criticized at the time, yet it has since been reevaluated as a healing gesture for a divided country. But Toobin argues that Ford's pardon was an unwise gift to an undeserving recipient and an unsettling political precedent. The Pardon explores those that followed: Jimmy Carter's amnesty for Vietnam draft resisters, Bill Clinton's pardon of Marc Rich, and the extraordinary story of Trump's unprecedented pardons at the end of his first term.

The Pardon is a must-read for anyone interested in American history, the complex dynamics of power within the highest office in the nation, and the implications of presidential mercy.

A full collection of the most important documents in the creation of the United States of America.

This book contains the following documents:

• The Declaration of Independence
• The Articles of Confederation
• The Constitution of the United States of America
• The 1789 Joint Resolution of Congress Proposing 12 Amendments to the U.S. Constitution
• The Preamble to The Bill of Rights
• The Bill of Rights: Amendments 1-10
• The Constitution: Amendments 11-27
• Brief Histories of The Founding Fathers

Interference is the essential (Kirkus Reviews) true history of the most important and consequential decisions, obstacles, and quandaries Mueller and his team faced when investigating Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. For the first time, Mueller's only deputy, his most senior counselor who served on the Watergate Special Prosecution Force, and the lead prosecutor looking into obstruction of justice and Russian interference, have come together to tell a highly relevant and readable account of their investigation into election interference and the connections between various Russians and members of the 2016 Trump campaign. Mueller himself wrote the book's preface.

Interference highlights the many actions Russia took as it favored candidate Donald Trump over Hillary Clinton, offering a powerful reminder of how committed Russia was to influence the election outcome. Ultimately, the special counsel brought indictments against thirty-four individuals and entities, including Trump's campaign chairman; his deputy campaign chairman; a campaign advisor; his first national security advisor; a longtime Trump associate; and over two-dozen Russian nationals. Every case that was able to proceed to a conclusion resulted in a guilty verdict or plea.

Interference explains the motivations and actions of Russia (which has not stopped exploiting American weaknesses), the importance and limitations of a special counsel, and the urgent need for people to make principled decisions even when being pushed from all directions not to do so. Much can be learned from the experiences faced by Mueller's team as they broke ground on some of the most complicated challenges facing our country--then and now. Their findings are essential to an understanding of America's current struggle to preserve the rule of law and strike the balance between presidential immunity and presidential accountability. The narrative carries special relevance following the Supreme Court's 2024 decision granting broad immunity to a president, a decision that sharply limits the conduct for which a president can be prosecuted--or even investigated.

Delve into the labyrinth of America's conspiracy culture with this investigative masterpiece that unearths the roots of our era's most potent myths.

In 1966, amid unrest over the Vietnam War and the alarming growth of the military-industrial complex, little-known writer Leonard Lewin was approached by a group of ingenious satirists on the Left to concoct a document that would pretend to ratify everyone's fears that the government was deceiving the public. Devoting more than a year to the project, Lewin constructed a fiction (passed off as the honest truth) that a government-run Study Group had been charged with examining the cost of peace, setting its first meetings in the very real Iron Mountain nuclear bunker in upstate New York (which lent the resulting book, Report from Iron Mountain, its name). In Lewin's telling, this gathering of the nation's academic elite concluded that suspending war would be disastrous, forcing all sorts of bizarre measures to compensate.

Lewin didn't realize it at the time, but he'd created a narrative that fed the interests of both ends of the political spectrum--by promoting the idea that the government uses centralized power for evil.

What fascinates about Phil Tinline's revelation-filled recreation of that ingenious hoax is seeing how it explodes into America's consciousness, dominates media reports, and sends government officials scrambling. And then, subsequently, how Lewin's fabrication is adopted by a seemingly endless string of extremist organizations which view it as supporting their ideology.

In this riveting--and, at times, chilling--tale of a deception that refuses to die is an unsettling warning about how, in contemporary times, a hoax may no longer be a hoax if it can be used to recruit followers to a cause.

Do you know what the Constitution actually says?
This witty, highly relevant annotation is your go-to guide to how the U.S. government works (or is supposed to work).

Written by political savant Ben Sheehan, and vetted for accuracy by experts in the field of constitutional law, What Does the Constitution Actually Say? is an entertaining and accessible primer on what our Constitution actually lays out.

With clear notes and graphics on everything from presidential powers to Supreme Court nominations to hidden loopholes, Sheehan walks us through the entire Constitution (with a bonus section on the Declaration of Independence). Besides putting the Constitution in modern-day English (so that it can be understood), What Does the Constitution Actually Say? gives you everything you need to be an effective voter and citizen in the November elections and beyond.

Fully updated chapters continue to address how technology and increasing levels of education have exposed people to more information than ever before. These societal gains, however, have also helped fuel a surge in narcissistic and misguided intellectual egalitarianism that has crippled informed debates on any number of issues. Over the past several years, the rise of populism and conspiracy theories have taken this to new levels. All voices, even the most ridiculous, demand to be taken with equal seriousness, and any claim to the contrary is dismissed as undemocratic elitism.

Tom Nichols' The Death of Expertise, Second Edition, follows up on how this rejection of experts has occurred: the openness of the internet, the emergence of a customer satisfaction model in higher education, the transformation of the news industry into a 24-hour entertainment machine, and importantly, the election of Donald Trump. Paradoxically, the increasingly democratic dissemination of information, rather than producing an educated public, has instead created an army of ill-informed and angry citizens who denounce intellectual achievement. When ordinary citizens believe that no one knows more than anyone else, democratic institutions themselves are in danger of falling either to populism or to technocracy or, in the worst case, a combination of both.

Michael Lewis's brilliant narrative of the Trump administration's botched first presidential transition takes us into the engine rooms of a government under attack by its leaders through willful ignorance and greed. The government manages a vast array of critical services that keep us safe and underpin our lives from ensuring the safety of our food and drugs and predicting extreme weather events to tracking and locating black market uranium before the terrorists do. The Fifth Risk masterfully and vividly unspools the consequences if the people given control over our government have no idea how it works.

The media scoffed at Trump's vision and the people who supported him; they were blinded by the Clinton machine. But their eyes were opened after Trump won sixty-two million votes and the Oval Office in 2016. Even Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan said, Donald Trump heard a voice in this country that no one else heard. He still does. Donald Trump puts America's interests first--and that means doing what's right for our economy, our national security, and our public safety. He made the biggest deals of his life as President of the United States, but there are more deals to be made. From ending the border crisis to enacting policies to eliminate regulations that restrict small businesses, Donald Trump understands that America doesn't need cowardice, it needs courage. It is Time to Get Tough

Since the release of bestselling author Tom Fitton's third book, A Republic Under Assault, the Left has taken extraordinary steps to eradicate American liberty, motivated by a radical ideology whose adherents occupy the nation's highest offices. In this powerful, eye-opening exposé (Kash Patel, former chief of staff to the US secretary of defense), Fitton details a long chain of abuses officials and politicians have made against the American people and calls readers to battle for the soul and survival of America.

Fitton and his team at Judicial Watch march us to the front lines where the progressive movement threatens America's most venerable institutions, undermining the core principles that make this country a beacon of hope to the world. The Left has declared war on everything from the rule of law to colorblind merit, border security, and government accountability. Their anti-American agenda must be stopped to save our country's future.

Julie Kelly is a singularly courageous journalist and indefatigable defender of truth. This is an eye-opening and breathtaking book that should be read by anyone who cares about justice, due process, and America's future.

-Mark R Levin

The events of January 6, 2021, are being exploited by the Democratic Party and the national news media to criminalize political protest and free speech in America.

Americans were shocked and outraged to see chaos unfold at the Capitol on January 6, 2021. The melee shut down plans by some Republican lawmakers to object to Congress's official certification of the 2020 presidential election results.

Democrats, the news media, and many leading Republicans immediately blamed the roughly four-hour disturbance on President Trump. The president incited an insurrection, the American pubic was told. It prompted a second impeachment trial of Donald Trump after he left office.

But one year later, the original narrative of what happened that day has crumbled while hundreds of Americans have been swept up in an unprecedented investigation led by Joe Biden's Justice Department to punish them for their involvement in the January 6th protest. The public has been misled-and flat-out lied to-about a number of aspects related to that day. This book exposes them all.

An absorbing account of 21st-century brinkmanship . . . . one that should be read by every legislator or presidential nominee sufficiently deluded to think that returning America to its isolationist past or making chummy with Putin is a viable option in today's world. -New York Times Book Review

The essential new book by CNN anchor and chief national security analyst Jim Sciutto, identifying a new, more uncertain global order with reporting on the frontlines of power from existing wars to looming ones across the globe.

The fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 dawned what Francis Fukuyama called The End of History. Three decades later, Jim Sciutto said on CNN's air as the Ukraine war began, that we are living in a 1939 moment. History never ended--it barely paused--and the global order as we long have known it is now gone. Powerful nations are determined to assert dominance on the world stage. And as their push for power escalates, a new order will affect everyone across the globe. Russia's invasion of Ukraine is a part of it, but in reality, this power struggle impacts every corner of our world--from Helsinki to Beijing, from Australia to the North Pole. This is a battle with many fronts: in the Arctic, in the oceans and across the skies, on man-made islands and redrawn maps, and in tech and cyberspace.

Through globe-spanning, exclusive interviews with dozens of political, military, and intelligence leaders, Sciutto defines our times as a return of great power conflict, a definitive break between the post-Cold War era and an entirely new and uncertain one. With savvy, thorough, in-person reporting, he follows-up his 2019 bestseller, The Shadow War: Inside Russia's and China's Secret Operations to Defeat America, which focused on the covert tactics of a hidden conflict.

The Return of Great Powers analyzes a historic and visible shift in real time. It details the realities of this new post-post-Cold War era, the increasingly aligned Russian and Chinese governments, and the flashpoint of a new, global nuclear arms race. And it poses a question: As we consider uncertain, even terrifying, outcomes, will it be possible for the West and Russia and China to prevent a new World War?

Going back to our country's founding, Americans once had a coherent and clear understanding of political tyranny, one crafted by Thomas Jefferson and updated for the industrial age by Louis Brandeis. A concentration of power--whether by government or banks--was understood as autocratic and dangerous to individual liberty and democracy. In the 1930s, people observed that the Great Depression was caused by financial concentration in the hands of a few whose misuse of their power induced a financial collapse. They drew on this tradition to craft the New Deal.

In Goliath, Matt Stoller explains how authoritarianism and populism have returned to American politics for the first time in eighty years, as the outcome of the 2016 election shook our faith in democratic institutions. It has brought to the fore dangerous forces that many modern Americans never even knew existed. Today's bitter recriminations and panic represent more than just fear of the future, they reflect a basic confusion about what is happening and the historical backstory that brought us to this moment.

The true effects of populism, a shrinking middle class, and concentrated financial wealth are only just beginning to manifest themselves under the current administrations. The lessons of Stoller's study will only grow more relevant as time passes. An engaging call to arms, (Kirkus Reviews) Stoller illustrates here in rich detail how we arrived at this tenuous moment, and the steps we must take to create a new democracy.

'This is a must read book for all those who love America and want it to be healed.' -- Justin Webb, presenter of the BBC's Today programme and Americast

'Unflinching and insightful.' -- Lyse Doucet, the BBC's Chief International Correspondent

From the author of When America Stopped Being Great, an insightful and urgent reassessment of America's past, present and future - as a country which is forever at war with itself.

The Forever War tells the story of how America's extreme polarization is 250 years in the making, and argues that the roots of its modern-day malaise are to be found in its troubled and unresolved past.

As we approach the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, the American experiment is failing. Division, mistrust and misinformation are now the country's defining characteristics. The storming of the Capitol, the prosecution of Donald Trump and battles over gun rights and abortion raise the spectre of further political violence.

Nick Bryant explains how the hate, divisiveness and paranoia we see today are in fact a core part of America's story. Combining brilliant storytelling, historical research and first-hand reportage, Bryant argues that insurrections, massacres and civil disturbances should sadly not be seen as abnormalities; they are a part of the fabric of the history of America.

Project 2025, with its advanced technology and sophisticated methods, has the potential to influence public opinion and disrupt the electoral process, which could have serious consequences for democracy. The ability to manipulate public perception and potentially undermine the integrity of elections poses a significant threat to the democratic process and the fundamental principles of fair and free elections. It is crucial for governments and organizations to be vigilant and take measures to protect the integrity of the electoral process and safeguard democracy from such threats. The fact that Donald Trump is closely connected to the creators of Project 2025 only adds to the concern. Given his controversial and polarizing nature, his involvement in Project 2025 may raise questions about its motives and potential impact. Additionally, his association with the creators may also bring into question the Project's credibility and impartiality. Overall, Trump's connection to the Project may further fuel skepticism and apprehension about its intentions and potential consequences. In today's digital age, the spread of misinformation and the manipulation of public opinion through social media and other online platforms have become significant threats to democracy. It is crucial for us to be aware of the dangers that this poses to democracy and to take action to protect the democratic process from such manipulation. This may involve promoting media literacy, holding tech companies accountable for their algorithms and content moderation, and supporting regulations that ensure transparency and fairness in online political advertising. By staying informed and actively working to safeguard the integrity of our democratic systems, we can help prevent the erosion of trust in our institutions and ensure that our voices are truly heard in the public sphere.

An examination of the profound impact that the War on Terror had in pushing American politics and society in an authoritarian direction

For an entire generation, at home and abroad, the United States has waged an endless conflict known as the War on Terror. In addition to multiple ground wars, the era pioneered drone strikes and industrial-scale digital surveillance; weakened the rule of law through indefinite detentions; sanctioned torture; and manipulated the truth about it all. These conflicts have yielded neither peace nor victory, but they have transformed America. What began as the persecution of Muslims and immigrants has become a normalized feature of American politics and national security, expanding the possibilities for applying similar or worse measures against other targets at home, as the summer of 2020 showed. A politically divided and economically destabilized country turned the War on Terror into a cultural--and then a tribal--struggle. It began on the ideological frontiers of the Republican Party before expanding to conquer the GOP, often with the acquiescence of the Democratic Party. Today's nativist resurgence walked through a door opened by the 9/11 era. And that door remains open.

Reign of Terror shows how these developments created an opportunity for American authoritarianism and gave rise to Donald Trump. It shows that Barack Obama squandered an opportunity to dismantle the War on Terror after killing Osama bin Laden. By the end of his tenure, the war had metastasized into a bitter, broader cultural struggle in search of a demagogue like Trump to lead it.

Reign of Terror is a pathbreaking and definitive union of journalism and intellectual history with the power to transform how America understands its national security policies and their catastrophic impact on civic life.

Do you think mainstream America needs to find its voice? If so, you're not alone. The country is under attack by extremists at the fringes who put ideology before sanity and stoke division for their own gain. They are trying to rob America of its common sense and deny empirical truths, and we're all suffering the consequences.

In We've Got Issues: How You Can Stand Strong for America's Soul and Sanity, Dr. Phil employs his signature no-nonsense approach to analyze America's cultural crisis and offers practical, empirically based, action-oriented strategies to restore and support our country's collective mental health.

This compelling work combines a brutally honest look at the sustained attack on the core values that have defined America at its best and offers prescriptive guidance on what you can do in your own life to stop the madness. With his ten working principles for a healthy society, Dr. Phil provides the tools for mainstream America to fight back against the forces of division with sensible and urgently needed advice supported by the latest social, medical, and psychological findings.

Dr. Phil demystifies the tyranny of the fringe and deconstructs their assault on the principles that made our nation prosperous, free, and powerful. With the hard-earned wisdom of years spent working with Americans of all backgrounds, Dr. Phil charts a course from cancel culture to counsel culture, from fear to acceptance, from victimhood to community, and from the tyranny of the fringe to a more civil society where we heal our divides and every one of us decides to be who we are on purpose. Dr. Phil is here to show us how.

The shocking truth about the government's secret plans to survive a catastrophic attack on US soil--even if the rest of us die--is a frightening eye-opener (Kirkus Reviews) that spans the dawn of the nuclear age to today, and contains everything one could possibly want to know (The Wall Street Journal).

Every day in Washington, DC, the blue-and-gold first Helicopter Squadron, codenamed MUSSEL, flies over the Potomac River. As obvious as the Presidential motorcade, most people assume the squadron is a travel perk for VIPs. They're only half right: while the helicopters do provide transport, the unit exists to evacuate high-ranking officials in the event of a terrorist or nuclear attack on the capital. In the event of an attack, select officials would be whisked by helicopters to a ring of secret bunkers around Washington, even as ordinary citizens were left to fend for themselves.

In exploring the incredible lengths (and depths) that successive administrations have gone to in planning for the aftermath of a nuclear assault, Graff deftly weaves a tale of secrecy and paranoia (The New York Times Book Review) with details that read like they've been ripped from the pages of a pulp spy novel (Vice). For more than sixty years, the US government has been developing secret Doomsday strategies to protect itself, and the multibillion-dollar Continuity of Government (COG) program takes numerous forms--from its potential to evacuate the Liberty Bell from Philadelphia to the plans to launch nuclear missiles from a Boeing-747 jet flying high over Nebraska. Garrett M. Graff sheds light on the inner workings of the 650-acre compound, called Raven Rock, just miles from Camp David, as well as dozens of other bunkers the government built for its top leaders during the Cold War, from the White House lawn to Cheyenne Mountain in Colorado to Palm Beach, Florida, and the secret plans that would have kicked in after a Cold War nuclear attack to round up foreigners and dissidents and nationalize industries. Equal parts a presidential, military, and cultural history, Raven Rock tracks the evolution of the government plan and the threats of global war from the dawn of the nuclear era through the War on Terror.

Fortunately, we are still a nation of skeptics. Fortunately, there are those among us who study pandemics and are willing to look unflinchingly at worst-case scenarios. Michael Lewis's taut and brilliant nonfiction thriller pits a band of medical visionaries against the wall of ignorance that was the official response of the Trump administration to the outbreak of COVID-19.

The characters you will meet in these pages are as fascinating as they are unexpected. A thirteen-year-old girl's science project on transmission of an airborne pathogen develops into a very grown-up model of disease control. A local public-health officer uses her worm's-eye view to see what the CDC misses, and reveals great truths about American society. A secret team of dissenting doctors, nicknamed the Wolverines, has everything necessary to fight the pandemic: brilliant backgrounds, world-class labs, prior experience with the pandemic scares of bird flu and swine flu...everything, that is, except official permission to implement their work.

Michael Lewis is not shy about calling these people heroes for their refusal to follow directives that they know to be based on misinformation and bad science. Even the internet, as crucial as it is to their exchange of ideas, poses a risk to them. They never know for sure who else might be listening in.