Michael Lewis commonly structures his books around major historical moments, but focuses on them through the lens of an individual. Whether it is the 2008 financial crisis or the rise of Silicon Valley, he tends to write about trends from a human-interest perspective. This book makes effective use of this structure in the way that it parallels Michael's story with a broader overview of the evolution of the role of the left tackle in American football.
In his book The Big Short, Lewis focuses on the collapse of the housing market in 2008 through the lens of several individuals: hedge fund manager Steve Eisman, Deutsche Bank trader Steve Lippmann, founder of Scion Capital Michael Burry, and CEO of Cornwall Capital Jamie Mai. Lewis shows how each of these people foresaw the collapse and used mortgage "shorts" to effectively bet against the U.S. housing market. Each chapter follows different narrative threads, moving between Eisman's attempts to draw attention to the looming disaster, Burry's increasingly disgruntled clients, and Lippmann's scheming to get rich. These perspectives humanize the issue while also creating a contrast between their priorities and points of view. Lewis breaks down the broad sweep of this major historical event by bringing it down to the level of the personal.
Lewis does similar work in his other book, The New New Thing, choosing to examine the career of James H. Clark as a kind of case study of the rise of Silicon Valley. By looking closely at Clark's accomplishments with companies like Netscape and WebMD, Lewis is able to show how his restless passion and idiosyncratic behavior shaped his success in business. At the same time, his intensity and difficult personality also indicate some of the problems with the kind of work environment he built and encouraged. Though more lighthearted in tone than The Big Short, the book uses Clark's characterization to identify many of the traits of many Silicon Valley startups, for better and worse.
Lewis uses these figures to not only humanize the story, but to show the kinds of people who are driving the action in these moments. From Eisman to Clark, these people give a sense of how these historical moments are shaped by individuals and how their personalities meet the times. For Lewis, the sweep of history may be broad, but is always tied to individuals.
