Mueller’s powerful but disheartening story of pervasive fraud and a general collapse of ethical behavior with only glimmers of hope from the bravery of whistleblowers is fully accessible to general readers and substantive enough for academic audiences; a must-read.
... deserves attention, though its shortcomings are substantial and occasionally exasperating ... Most of Mueller’s very long book is devoted to original storytelling. His extensively reported tales of individual whistleblowers and their often cruel fates are compelling ... But sometimes the pictures Mueller paints are misleading. He prefers black-and-white versions to the grays that so often describe reality. His anecdotes feature good guys in white hats and bad ones in black ... The great crash of 2008 and the government’s reaction to it is another subject Mueller oversimplifies ... Mueller’s mistakes and omissions undermine a reader’s confidence.
In this hefty account, Mueller at times overdoes the descriptive details, but overall this is a fascinating history of the self-deputized referees who blow the whistle on illicit activities that put Americans’ freedom, money, health, and lives at risk.
Whether writing about drug companies that conceal unfavorable evidence, hospitals that engage in needless admissions, or nuclear facilities that waste public funds, the author engrossingly examines the ethics, mechanics, and reverberations of whistleblowing of all kinds, emphasizing how bitterly controversial the practice remains, posing a clash between group loyalty and individual conscience ... Superb reporting on brave people who decided, 'It would have been criminal for me not to act.'
... exhaustive ... Such broad characterizations occasionally mar Mueller’s analysis, but he efficiently synthesizes a vast amount of material. This exceptionally timely book is sure to strike a chord with readers paying close attention to the political landscape.
