Review: The Fifth Risk

The Fifth Risk by Michael Lewis
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

For the most part, I steer clear of politics. But my friend tore through this one and as that is unlike him, it made me curious enough to read it especially because I have another book by Lewis on my "to be read" list.

I think it is safe to say this is a book Trump supporters will not like. However, I wouldn't necessarily call this an Anti-Trump book per se, in that the events laid out could have been done by any president; it just so happened that Trump is the one who did them. While the point of the book is to point out the pitfalls and consequences of Trump having not had a transition team in place to learn how to run the government, I felt Lewis tried to make this more about the facts than a personal bias.

For me, the book was eye-opening in that it showed me how much I, as your average American citizen, did not know about what some of the major departments (DOD, Department of Commerce) really do vs what I, like most people, just assumed they do. While change is not necessarily a bad thing, the departments looked at in this book are some pretty big ones to not have at least a basic understanding of prior to taking them over! I was definitely turned off after learning some of the things that are acceptable practices (in general and not at all related to the current administration) and fascinated by other aspects (those dealing with the weather, which takes up a good portion of the last half of the book).

Overall, I would say this is a pretty eye-opening look at how the transition from one president to the next typically happens, a good behind-the-scenes look at the day to day operations of the government with a touch of dystopian life thrown in. It's a short book, so it's a pretty quick read but it did make me wonder what the ripple effects of the current administration's disregard for the norm will be down the road.

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