by Beverly Gage
First published 2022
Beverly Gage examines J. Edgar Hoover through previously unseen sources to reveal how one man dominated American politics for nearly five decades. In 1924, the young Hoover transformed a scandal-ridden law enforcement agency into the modern FBI. He believed the federal government could achieve great things, but excluded communists and racial minorities from his vision of America. Hoover built a personal empire using state resources and remained in power from 1924 until his death in 1972. He advised eight presidents while embodying conservative values including anticommunism, white supremacy, and politicized Christianity. Millions of Americans admired him, and powerful figures from Franklin Roosevelt to Richard Nixon supported his work. Gage shows how Hoover operated not from the margins but from the center of American power, creating the blueprint that modern conservative politics still follows today.
Genres: biography, history, 20th-century, non-fiction, 21st-century, american-history
Vibes: intimate, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: power-dynamics, rise-and-fall
Setting: America
Period: 1924, 1972
837 pages · Hardcover · Viking