J. Edgar Hoover and the Making of the American Century
In another time and under other conditions, J. Edgar Hoover may have grown into a heroic figure. He was born into the Washington legacy, one of the first families of that town from its days as a roughshod village all the way through its emergence as a booming metropolis.
Both sides of his family were well-established and on the rise. He had access to education and opportunity. He was, by nature, an intelligent, enterprising youth who sought to become the ideal man – although that may not have been an advantage.
Unfortunately, Hoover’s character also contained some fatal flaws, likely acquired through family and social circumstances.
At the time of Hoover’s upbringing, the newspapers were full of laments about the lack of strong, capable men. The masculine ideal seemed to have vanished, and so it was being put back into the public curriculum. From the masculine Christ to Teddy Roosevelt, the ideals of strength, courage, robust health, and integrity were elevated.
Young Hoover worked hard to live up to these ideals and felt a great deal of shame over the weaknesses he saw in the men in his own family. From his grandfather’s suicide to his father’s declining mental health, Hoover felt embarrassed by their failure to live up to the masculine ideal.
When he went to college, Hoover joined a fraternity called Kappa Alpha where he was indoctrinated in the southern white supremacist views of racial order. While studying, he took his first government position as a messenger at the Library of Congress where he developed his incredible skills at gathering, organizing, and cataloging data.
When World War I erupted, he sought a government position in the Justice Department and avoided deployment. The Justice Department was where he began to shape himself into the man who’d build the FBI.
Very quickly he proved his value to the department, becoming head of the Radical Division of the Bureau of Investigation in 1919. That year, he also got a new boss, Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer. Under Palmer, he conducted his first of the well-known “Palmer Raids” against radical anarchists.
Not only was this a first in terms of his achievement of spearheading a large-scale operation, it also marked the first time of any significance that he received negative attention for his actions. His entire youth he spent successfully ingratiating himself to authority figures. Now, he was shocked and upset by some heated criticism of the raid.
This didn’t deter him from organizing and conducting a second round of raids against two communist groups on January 2, 1920. The exact number of arrests is unknown, but it was in the thousands.
Again, he received backlash and the Labor Department withdrew its support. Rather than deport the communist dissidents en masse, they chose to investigate each detainee on a case-by-case basis resulting in far fewer deportations than Hoover had planned.
The criticism he received revealed the kind of person and leader Hoover would continue to be. Rather than learn from it, he responded with vindictiveness, having his agents investigate – or rather, dig up dirt – on anyone who spoke out against him and the raids.
G-Man (2022) is a thorough and comprehensive biography of J. Edgar Hoover and the history of the FBI. Drawing from established history as well as newly uncovered documents, it covers the entire timeline of Hoover’s personal life as well as his role in shaping America as we know it.
Ich bin begeistert. Ich liebe Bücher aber durch zwei kleine Kinder komme ich einfach nicht zum Lesen. Und ja, viele Bücher haben viel bla bla und die Quintessenz ist eigentlich ein Bruchteil.
Genau dafür ist Blinkist total genial! Es wird auf das Wesentliche reduziert, die Blinks sind gut verständlich, gut zusammengefasst und auch hörbar! Das ist super. 80 Euro für ein ganzes Jahr klingt viel, aber dafür unbegrenzt Zugriff auf 3000 Bücher. Und dieses Wissen und die Zeitersparnis ist unbezahlbar.
Extrem empfehlenswert. Statt sinnlos im Facebook zu scrollen höre ich jetzt täglich zwischen 3-4 "Bücher". Bei manchen wird schnelle klar, dass der Kauf unnötig ist, da schon das wichtigste zusammen gefasst wurde..bei anderen macht es Lust doch das Buch selbständig zu lesen. Wirklich toll
Einer der besten, bequemsten und sinnvollsten Apps die auf ein Handy gehören. Jeden morgen 15-20 Minuten für die eigene Weiterbildung/Entwicklung oder Wissen.
Viele tolle Bücher, auf deren Kernaussagen reduziert- präzise und ansprechend zusammengefasst. Endlich habe ich das Gefühl, Zeit für Bücher zu finden, für die ich sonst keine Zeit habe.
Hol dir mit Blinkist die besten Erkenntnisse aus mehr als 7.000 Sachbüchern und Podcasts. In 15 Minuten lesen oder anhören!
Jetzt kostenlos testen
Blink 3 von 12 - Eine kurze Geschichte der Menschheit
von Yuval Noah Harari
