About Michael Lewis
Michael Lewis is an American nonfiction author and financial journalist, best known for Liar's Poker, Moneyball, The Blind Side and The Big Short. His books turn complicated subjects such as bond trading, baseball statistics, the 2008 financial crisis and high-frequency trading into character-driven stories, and several have been adapted into films.
Lewis grew up in New Orleans. He studied art history at Princeton University and economics at the London School of Economics, then worked as a bond salesman for Salomon Brothers in New York and London in the 1980s. That experience became his first book, Liar's Poker (1989), an account of Wall Street culture at the time. He went on to write for publications including The New Republic, The New York Times Magazine, Slate and Bloomberg, and was a contributing editor at Vanity Fair from 2009 to 2026.
Moneyball (2003) followed the Oakland Athletics and general manager Billy Beane as they used statistical analysis to compete against richer teams. The Blind Side (2006) and Moneyball were both made into films, as was The Big Short (2010), his story of the investors who bet against the housing market before the 2008 crash. Later books include Flash Boys (2014), on high-frequency trading; The Undoing Project (2016), on the psychologists Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky; The Fifth Risk (2018), on federal agencies during a presidential transition; The Premonition (2021), on the pandemic; and Going Infinite (2023), on Sam Bankman-Fried and FTX.
In 2025 Lewis edited Who Is Government?, a collection of profiles of public servants that began as a Washington Post series, and his 2026 book Blockers follows civil servants affected by the Department of Government Efficiency. He also created and hosts the podcast Against the Rules, about fairness and referees in American life. His work has won Gerald Loeb Awards and two Los Angeles Times Book Prizes, and he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2023.
What Michael Lewis is known for
- Moneyball
- The Big Short
- Liar's Poker
- The Blind Side and The Undoing Project
- The podcast Against the Rules
Works by Michael Lewis
1 essay to practice
More notable works
Liar's Poker
Book · 1989
His first book, drawn from his years as a Salomon Brothers bond salesman.
Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game
Book · 2003
How the Oakland Athletics used statistical analysis to compete with wealthier teams; adapted into a 2011 film.
The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game
Book · 2006
His first book to be adapted into a film, released in 2009.
The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine
Book · 2010
The investors who bet against the US housing market before 2008; adapted into a 2015 film.
Flash Boys: A Wall Street Revolt
Book · 2014
An account of high-frequency trading that set off a public debate about market structure.
The Undoing Project: A Friendship that Changed Our Minds
Book · 2016
The collaboration between psychologists Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman.
The Fifth Risk
Book · 2018
Built from his Vanity Fair reporting on federal agencies during a presidential transition.
Going Infinite: The Rise and Fall of a New Tycoon
Book · 2023
An account of Sam Bankman-Fried and the collapse of FTX.
Who Is Government?: The Untold Story of Public Service
Book · 2025
An anthology he edited of profiles of federal workers, first published as a Washington Post series.
Book · 2026
His newest book, following public servants targeted during the early days of DOGE.
Michael Lewis’s writing style
Lewis excels at turning complicated subjects into page-turning narratives. He uses strong character development and scene-setting to make abstract concepts concrete. His writing is characterized by clear exposition interwoven with compelling storytelling.
- Systems explained through people
- He explains baseball statistics or mortgage bonds by following a few vivid characters, such as Billy Beane or the investors in The Big Short, so readers learn the system through their stories.
- Finding the overlooked angle
- A Forbes reviewer wrote that he can enter a heavily covered subject and find what other writers missed; his books often start with the outsider who saw something first.
- Narrative pace
- The New York Times praised his narrative panache about money and finance; his books read like novels, with scenes, dialogue and suspense.
- Insider vantage
- Liar's Poker draws on his own time selling bonds, and later books depend on long access to his subjects.
- Fairness and institutions as themes
- From The Fifth Risk to Against the Rules and Who Is Government?, he keeps returning to the people who make institutions work and what happens when they are ignored.
How to write like Michael Lewis
Find a complicated system that matters, then find the person inside it who sees it differently from everyone else. Lewis rarely explains a market or an institution in the abstract; he introduces a character, puts them in a scene and lets the reader learn the mechanics as that person does. Do the reporting needed to earn that access, and look for the overlooked angle in a story others think they already know.
Write each chapter as a scene with a question that pulls the reader forward. Explain technical ideas in plain language at the moment the story needs them, not before. Keep a light, wry voice, but let the stakes come through: who was right, who was ignored and what it cost. Before you finish, ask what the story says about fairness or how institutions work, since that is often what lifts his books above good reporting.
The quickest way to absorb these habits is to retype one of Michael Lewis’s essays above, word for word, then write a paragraph of your own in the same voice. New to this? Read what copywork is and how to do it.
Frequently asked questions about Michael Lewis
- What is Michael Lewis most famous for?
- Michael Lewis is best known for nonfiction books that turn finance, sports and policy into gripping stories, especially Liar's Poker, Moneyball, The Blind Side and The Big Short. Moneyball, The Blind Side and The Big Short were all adapted into films. He is also known for The Undoing Project, Flash Boys, The Fifth Risk and his podcast Against the Rules.
- What books has Michael Lewis written, in order?
- His major books include Liar's Poker (1989), The Money Culture (1991), Trail Fever (1997), The New New Thing (1999), Next (2001), Moneyball (2003), Coach (2005), The Blind Side (2006), Home Game (2009), The Big Short (2010), Boomerang (2011), Flash Boys (2014), The Undoing Project (2016), The Fifth Risk (2018), The Premonition (2021), Going Infinite (2023), Who Is Government? (editor, 2025) and Blockers (2026).
- What is "Who Is Government?" by Michael Lewis?
- Who Is Government?: The Untold Story of Public Service (2025) is a collection that Lewis edited. It grew out of a Washington Post series on the federal workforce in which writers including Casey Cep, Dave Eggers and W. Kamau Bell each profiled a public servant. Lewis contributed a profile of a Labor Department mine-safety expert. Riverhead published the book in March 2025.
- Does Michael Lewis have a podcast?
- Yes. Lewis created and hosts Against the Rules, which first aired in April 2019 and is produced by Pushkin Industries. Each season looks at fairness in American life, often through the people who act as referees and whose work depends on public trust.
- What is Michael Lewis's writing style?
- Lewis writes character-driven narrative nonfiction. He explains complex systems such as bond markets, baseball analytics or federal agencies by following a few memorable people, often outsiders who saw something others missed. His prose is brisk, wry and full of scenes and dialogue, and reviewers have praised his narrative flair with money and finance, while some critics have questioned his treatment of particular subjects.