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Secrecy and Power: The Life of J. Edgar Hoover
Drawing on previously unknown personal documents, a study of F.B.I. files, and the presidential papers of nine administrations, this biography reveals the public record and private life of J. Edgar Hoover, America's most controversial law enforcer
624 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1987
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About the author
Richard Gid Powers
16 books17 followersRichard Gid Powers, born 1944, is a professor of history at the College of Staten Island and Graduate Center, CUNY, in the USA.
Powers has written extensively on American history, particularly on the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the anticommunist movement of the mid-twentieth century.
Powers has written extensively on American history, particularly on the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the anticommunist movement of the mid-twentieth century.
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
November 27, 2017
By the 1940’s one man stood as the most powerful one in America next to only the President. That man was Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Director J. Edgar Hoover. In 1917 Hoover had graduated from George Washington Law School and landed a job in the Justice Department. During World War I Hoover registered interned aliens, this experience led him to identify and deport dangerous Communists. His formidable organization skills were noticed and he was promoted to assistant director of the FBI in1921 and subsequently appointed to the directorship chief in 1924.
As director, He transformed the Bureau from an old-line detective agency politically controlled and staffed through patronage into one characterized by professionalism. He invented the fingerprint system to individually identify people and kept a well-organized collection of fingerprints. He also instituted a rigid system of control to combat any kind public scandal that might diminish the Bureau.
In the 1930’s Hoover’s FBI captured notorious gangsters such as John Dillinger. He also is given credit for helping President Franklin Roosevelt to promote his New Deal policies by giving the country confidence that they were well protected.
Also in the 1930’s Hollywood was searching for material to publish. The exciting field of Investigation got in their sights, they began to produce and show G Men movies such as “You Can’t get Away with it,” These movies made Hoover not only famous but also popular as an American hero.
When Harry Truman became President, he became the first President that Hoover didn’t like and get along with. Hoover always viewed Communist activities as America’s number one crime. Truman didn’t share that opinion. He was a friend of Dwight Eisenhower and President Eisenhower approved of all of Hoover’s plans. However, when John Kennedy took over Hoover distrusted him as a symbol of social change that Hoover hated and feared. When Lyndon Johnson succeeded Kennedy. Hoover had a 20-year friendship with Johnson. Under Johnson, Hoover finally began to enforce civil law rights in the South.
Hoover very much liked President Richard Nixon and Nixon reciprocated. However, Nixon’s aids disliked Hoover, they felt that Hoover was a relic and way past his prime. Nixon though didn’t have the heart to fire Hoover. Nixon did, however, have his own people take on projects rather than rely on the FBI to do it. It is said that Nixon Aid’s didn’t trust the FBI to break into the Water Gate Hotel. So, they did it themselves.
On May 2, 1972 Hoover died. He was given a Military Funeral. However afterwards through the Freedom of Information Act files of FBI abuses emerged including illegal wiretapping.
J Edgar Hoover was a hero to the crime and anti- communist sector of the public and a villain to the civil liberties sector. Either way he was one of the 20th Centuries most important people.
As director, He transformed the Bureau from an old-line detective agency politically controlled and staffed through patronage into one characterized by professionalism. He invented the fingerprint system to individually identify people and kept a well-organized collection of fingerprints. He also instituted a rigid system of control to combat any kind public scandal that might diminish the Bureau.
In the 1930’s Hoover’s FBI captured notorious gangsters such as John Dillinger. He also is given credit for helping President Franklin Roosevelt to promote his New Deal policies by giving the country confidence that they were well protected.
Also in the 1930’s Hollywood was searching for material to publish. The exciting field of Investigation got in their sights, they began to produce and show G Men movies such as “You Can’t get Away with it,” These movies made Hoover not only famous but also popular as an American hero.
When Harry Truman became President, he became the first President that Hoover didn’t like and get along with. Hoover always viewed Communist activities as America’s number one crime. Truman didn’t share that opinion. He was a friend of Dwight Eisenhower and President Eisenhower approved of all of Hoover’s plans. However, when John Kennedy took over Hoover distrusted him as a symbol of social change that Hoover hated and feared. When Lyndon Johnson succeeded Kennedy. Hoover had a 20-year friendship with Johnson. Under Johnson, Hoover finally began to enforce civil law rights in the South.
Hoover very much liked President Richard Nixon and Nixon reciprocated. However, Nixon’s aids disliked Hoover, they felt that Hoover was a relic and way past his prime. Nixon though didn’t have the heart to fire Hoover. Nixon did, however, have his own people take on projects rather than rely on the FBI to do it. It is said that Nixon Aid’s didn’t trust the FBI to break into the Water Gate Hotel. So, they did it themselves.
On May 2, 1972 Hoover died. He was given a Military Funeral. However afterwards through the Freedom of Information Act files of FBI abuses emerged including illegal wiretapping.
J Edgar Hoover was a hero to the crime and anti- communist sector of the public and a villain to the civil liberties sector. Either way he was one of the 20th Centuries most important people.
April 21, 2016
As with many of the books I have read recently, I found this one at my local public library in the used book store. I have always been fascinated by the FBI and the mystique around both the institution and the man, J. Edgar Hoover.
Much of the book is very detailed and clinical. It includes dates, places, names and circumstances that begin to get mind-numbing after about 100 pages. The author does portray Hoover as a complex, cold man who almost single-handedly built a unique police organization at a time when the United States needed a national law enforcement agency. His all-consuming passion (if one can use that word when speaking about Hoover) is ferreting out and crushing communism in the United States.
He took over leadership of the Bureau in 1924 under the Coolidge administration and when he died in 1972, Richard Nixon was president. He had led the Bureau through two world wars, Viet Nam, Korea, 1930's domestic gang warfare, the rise of the civil rights movement, and of course, decades of internal communist threats - real or imagined in Hoover's mind.
The man and the legend of Hoover and the FBI are complex and many-faceted and dozens of books have been written about both. He does seem to have been an innovator, passionately devoted to his institution as a man of deep principles and beliefs which to his mind were always right and just.
Much of the book is very detailed and clinical. It includes dates, places, names and circumstances that begin to get mind-numbing after about 100 pages. The author does portray Hoover as a complex, cold man who almost single-handedly built a unique police organization at a time when the United States needed a national law enforcement agency. His all-consuming passion (if one can use that word when speaking about Hoover) is ferreting out and crushing communism in the United States.
He took over leadership of the Bureau in 1924 under the Coolidge administration and when he died in 1972, Richard Nixon was president. He had led the Bureau through two world wars, Viet Nam, Korea, 1930's domestic gang warfare, the rise of the civil rights movement, and of course, decades of internal communist threats - real or imagined in Hoover's mind.
The man and the legend of Hoover and the FBI are complex and many-faceted and dozens of books have been written about both. He does seem to have been an innovator, passionately devoted to his institution as a man of deep principles and beliefs which to his mind were always right and just.
July 8, 2012
Good insight into the background of a man that pretty much defined middle America for decades.From memory I think he was head of the FBI for nigh on 50 years,you can only imagine the influence that he had.
Starts right at the begining with the young J Edgars Sunday school upbringing and believe it or not,Sunday school politics in a genteel area of Washington DC,his home made news letters to the local community and his relationship with his elder brother who was active in the same fields.
A good read,very politically and socially relevant to anyone interested in the development of twentieth century USA.Really made me ponder on what a young country it actually is.
Starts right at the begining with the young J Edgars Sunday school upbringing and believe it or not,Sunday school politics in a genteel area of Washington DC,his home made news letters to the local community and his relationship with his elder brother who was active in the same fields.
A good read,very politically and socially relevant to anyone interested in the development of twentieth century USA.Really made me ponder on what a young country it actually is.
January 17, 2011
When J. Edgar Hoover died in 1972, what was left of his reputation was sure to dissolve as the FBI's secret files became publicly available for scrutiny. While critical, this biography is more sympathetic to Hoover than other accounts I've read. But it is still hard not to conclude that, at best, Hoover was a strange and powerful man who was unendingly obsessed with Communism and saw it in anything that went against his traditionalist beliefs.
Want to read
January 11, 2021Ele é odiado até hoje por comunistas e seus companheiros de viagem. Mas também é reverenciado pela grande maioria dos americanos. J. Edgar Hoover tem sua vida esmiuçada no livro "Secrety Power" ou Sigilo e Poder, uma leitura poderosa para que possa criar seu próprio conceito sobre a Guerra Fria do ponto de vista ocidental. A Obra não só relata vida do diretor do FBI por quatro décadas, sete mandatos de presidentes,democratas e republicanos, mas principalmente sua competência em bloquear os ataques dos comunistas de Stalin desde a Revolução Russa de 1917. O livro é um passo importante para compreender como chegamos à Guerra contra o Marxismo Cultural que vivemos hoje.
July 26, 2020
This felt amateurish, like an authors first effort, and unfortunately did not improve as it went on.
Hoover is a very interesting person but what makes him interesting was less detailed than the timeline. There was often repeated information that seemed like filler or forgetfulness.
This was one of those books I was not excited about picking up and struggled to finish it.
Hoover is a very interesting person but what makes him interesting was less detailed than the timeline. There was often repeated information that seemed like filler or forgetfulness.
This was one of those books I was not excited about picking up and struggled to finish it.
June 30, 2008
Very interesting book about Hoover and the beginning of the FBI. He was one wacked dude, and yes, it does talk about his penchant for cross dressing. Such a multi-faceted guy who led a very interesting life for sure....
January 9, 2008
Intersting for all who enjoy American Politics and history.
P.S. YES. The rumors were true.
P.S. YES. The rumors were true.
January 28, 2008
A well researched "tell-all" book that unfortunately doesn't pull the trigger when it needs to.
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March 8, 2016paperback 6x9
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews