MANY UNHAPPY RETURNS: One Man's Quest to Turn Around the Most Unpopular Organization in America

A successful businessman but political neophyte, Rossotti was appointed commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service in 1997; this book is a matter-of-fact recounting of his five-year tenure, which included many of President Bush's changes to the code. An entertaining insider's account, it reads like the bureaucratic equivalent of a police procedural. With refreshing clarity, Rossotti describes such impediments as political pressure from the White House and the "senseless issues that the [IRS] lawyers insisted on pursuing." None of the villains are identified by name, but the author's determination to name and praise everyone who helped sometimes make the book read like an overlong Academy Awards acceptance speech. It succeeds as a management case study, clearly laying out Rossotti's initial analysis of apparently intractable problems, followed by the development of strategies for change, the recruitment of stakeholders and the use of skills and tricks required to shepherd the process to a successful conclusion. And the book demonstrates that dedication by honest and talented managers can produce results (even if one disagrees with them). It's also an inspiring bit of political truth telling. (Mar. 8)