G-Man : J. Edgar Hoover and the making of the American century

Summary: A major new biography of J Edgar Hoover that draws from never-before-seen sources to create a groundbreaking portrait of a colossus who dominated half a century of American history and planted the seeds for much of today's conservative political landscape. 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.

Record details

ISBN: 0593511468
ISBN: 9780593511466
Physical Description: xxi, 837 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm
print
Publisher: [New York] : Penguin Books, 2023.

Content descriptions

Bibliography, etc. Note:	Includes bibliographical references (pages 784-794) and index.
Formatted Contents Note:	Introduction -- Part 1. The Federal city (1895-1924) The oldest inhabitants (1800-1895) ; Little Edgar (1895-1905) ; The boy problem (1905-1909) ; Jump high and leap quick (1909-1913) ; Dieu et les dames (1913-1917) ; The great adventure (1917-1918) ; The radical division (1919) ; New elements (1920) ; No. 2 (1924-1924) -- Part 2. Building the Bureau (1924-1945) Preface ; The new sleuth (1924-1925) ; Kappa Alpha Bureau (1925-1928) ; Depression days (1929-1932) ; Chairman of the Moral Uplift Squad (1927-1932) ; Government men (1933) ; The black chamber (1934) ; It's FBI now (1934-1935) ; Right-hand man (1935-1936) ; Sob sisters and convict lovers (1935-1938) ; The gathering storm (1936-1938) ; Mothers and sons (1938-1939) ; Terror by index card (1939-1940) ; Henry E. Jones (1940-1941) ; Enemy aliens (1941-1942) ; The most exciting achievement yet (1942) ; American dilemmas (1942-1945) -- Part 3. Power and politics (1945-1959) Preface ; Central intelligence (1945-1946) ; Under color of law (1941-1948) ; The one bulwark (1941-1946) ; Un-American activities (1946-1947) ; Three-ring circus (1948-1950) ; J. Edgar Hoover, churchman (1948-1950) ; Atomic drama (1949-1951) ; Hooverism (1950-1952) ; Inner conflicts (1947-1952) ; A glorious year (1953) ; No sense of decency (1953-1954) ; Massive resistance (1954-1957) ; Master of deceit (1956-1959) -- Part 4. The war at home (1960-1972) Preface ; New frontiers (1960-1961) ; Top hoodlums (1957-1961) ; The Federal Bureau of Integration (1957-1961) ; Patron saint of the far Right (1961-1962) ; In friendship (1961-1962) ; Decadent thinking (1957-1962) ; The most dangerous Negro (1963) ; The President is dead (1963) ; The Commission (1963-1964) ; Freedom summer (1964) ; All the way with LBJ (1964) ; The most notorious liar (1964-1965) ; White hate (1964-1965) ; Hoover knows best (1965-1966) ; Commies in colleges (1965-1967) ; Messiah (1968) ; Nixon's the one (1968-1969) ; The gospel of nihilism (1969-1970) ; The man who stayed too long (1970-1971) ; One of the giants (1972) -- Epilogue.
Awards Note:	National Book Critics Circle Award, 2022. Pulitzer Prize for Biography Winner, 2023.