Check nearby libraries
Buy this book
![Loading indicator](/images/ajax-loader-bar.gif)
We remember him as a bulldog--squat frame, bulging wide-set eyes, fearsome jowls--but in 1924, when he became director of the FBI, he had been the trim, dazzling wunderkind of the administrative state, buzzing with energy and big ideas for reform. He transformed a failing law-enforcement backwater, riddled with scandal, into a modern machine. He believed in the power of the federal government to do great things for the nation and its citizens. He also believed that certain people--many of them communists or racial minorities or both-- did not deserve to be included in that American project. Hoover rose to power and then stayed there, decade after decade, using the tools of state to create a personal fiefdom unrivaled in U.S. history.
Beverly Gage's monumental work explores the full sweep of Hoover's life and career, from his birth in 1895 to a modest Washington civil-service family through his death in 1972. In her nuanced and definitive portrait, Gage shows how Hoover was more than a one-dimensional tyrant and schemer who strong-armed the rest of the country into submission. As FBI director from 1924 through his death in 1972, he was a confidant, counselor, and adversary to eight U.S. presidents, four Republicans and four Democrats. Franklin Roosevelt and Lyndon Johnson did the most to empower him, yet his closest friend among the eight was fellow anticommunist warrior Richard Nixon. Hoover was not above blackmail and intimidation, but he also embodied conservative values ranging from anticommunism to white supremacy to a crusading and politicized interpretation of Christianity. This garnered him the admiration of millions of Americans. He stayed in office for so long because many people, from the highest reaches of government down to the grassroots, wanted him there and supported what he was doing, thus creating the template that the political right has followed to transform its party.
G-Man places Hoover back where he once stood in American political history--not at the fringes, but at the center--and uses his story to explain the trajectories of governance, policing, race, ideology, political culture, and federal power as they evolved over the course of the 20th century.
Check nearby libraries
Buy this book
![Loading indicator](/images/ajax-loader-bar.gif)
Subjects
FBI, Law Enforcement, BiographyPeople
J. Edgar Hoover (1895-1972)Edition | Availability |
---|---|
1
G-Man: J. Edgar Hoover and the Making of the American Century
2024, Simon & Schuster, Limited
in English
1849832854 9781849832854
|
zzzz
Libraries near you:
WorldCat
|
2
G-Man: J. Edgar Hoover and the Making of the American Century
2023, Penguin Publishing Group
in English
0593511468 9780593511466
|
aaaa
Libraries near you:
WorldCat
|
3
G-Man: J. Edgar Hoover and the American Century
November 22, 2022, Viking (Penguin Random House), Viking
Hardcover
in English
0670025372 9780670025374
|
zzzz
Libraries near you:
WorldCat
|
Community Reviews (0)
Feedback?History
- Created September 17, 2023
- 1 revision
Wikipedia citation
×CloseCopy and paste this code into your Wikipedia page. Need help?
September 17, 2023 | Created by ImportBot | Imported from Better World Books record |