Blockers: Rebels in the Deep State - Hardcover

Lewis, Michael

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0241807786 ISBN 13: 9780241807781

Publisher: Allen Lane, 2026

Synopsis

'Michael Lewis has a peerless, uncanny gift for finding the human frontlines of the most abstract and complex stories… He routinely populates these battlefields with unlikely heroes from real life… This new book is a straight war report’ – Tim Adams, Observer

'The “blockers” are the dedicated officials who try to stop the wanton and often illegal destruction of their life’s work by Elon Musk’s Doge or other agents of chaos… there are few better suited to telling this story than Michael Lewis, one of the world’s bestselling nonfiction writers’ – Sam Freedman, Guardian

A wild ride through the destruction of the American government – and the unsung heroes who tried to stop it – by the No. 1 bestselling author of The Big Short

In early 2025, an army of young men invaded the offices of US government. Armed with laptops and sleeping bags, a raft of prejudices and a bulletproof sense of mission instilled in them by their new boss, Elon Musk, the tech bro acolytes of DOGE were on a mission to seek and destroy, by any means necessary. But once inside, they came up against a group of people whose courage, commitment and in some cases lifelong devotion to the nation they served would quickly earn them the wrath of Musk. He called them Blockers. Find the Blockers, Musk told his band of worshipful young men – and eliminate them.

Blockers is the story of the unsung heroes at the heart of the most complex and powerful machine ever designed by humankind, who fought back when DOGE, and then even darker forces, wanted to smash it all up. One kept Americans’ most sensitive tax data out of the wrong hands, another made sure that politicians and civil servants played by the rules. One figured out how to stop wildfires from destroying suburban neighbourhoods, another delivered the cure to cystic fibrosis. There was also a security guard.

This is a thriller about unlikely rebels and power-drunk villains. It is also a cautionary tale that asks, what do we do when the idea of public service becomes worthless? When the things we didn’t even realise we were taking for granted suddenly no longer exist. When we don’t know what we’ve got until it’s gone.

About this title

About the Author

Michael Lewis's global bestselling books lift the lid on the biggest stories of our times. They include Flash Boys, a game-changing exposé of high-speed scamming; The Big Short, which was made into a hit Oscar-winning film; Liar's Poker, the book that defined the excesses of the 1980s; and, most recently, The Fifth Risk, revealing what happens when democracy unravels. Michael Lewis was born in New Orleans and educated at Princeton University and the London School of Economics.

Edition details

• Publisher: Allen Lane
• Publication date: 2026
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0241807786
• ISBN 13: 9780241807781
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 256