1895-1972

Examines the legacy and the power held by J. Edgar Hoover during his years as the first director of the FBI and describes how his decisions affected the lives of Americans in the twentieth century.

Discusses lobotomies, a medical procedure for helping mentally ill patients initially considered to be groundbreaking when first proposed and performed by Walter Freeman and later decried as a major lapse in morality, and contains interviews with medical historians, former patients, and others.

Provides in-depth analysis of the life, works, career, and critical importance of Edmund Wilson.

Provides in-depth analysis of the life, works, career, and critical importance of Edmund Wilson.

"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. 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"--.

Chronicles the life of Dr. Walter J. Freeman, focusing on his controversial efforts to cure mental illness and the impact his work had on the boundaries of accepted medical practice.

The true story of how a small-town lawman in upstate New York busted a Cosa Nostra conference in 1957, exposing the Mafia to America.

In late 1970, a mild-mannered Haverford College physics professor privately asked a few people this question: ?What do you think of burglarizing an FBI office?? In remarkable detail and with astonishing depth of research, Betty Medsger reveals the never-before-told full story of the history-changing break-in at the Media, Pennsylvania, FBI offices. Through their exploits, a group of unlikely activists exposed the shocking truth that J. Edgar Hoover was operating a shadow Bureau engaged in illegal surveillance and harassment of the American people. -- From back cover.

Here is the hidden history of America?s hundred-year war on terror. The FBI has fought against terrorists, spies, anyone it deemed subversive?and sometimes American presidents. The FBI?s secret intelligence and surveillance techniques have created a tug-of-war between national security and civil liberties. It is a tension that strains the very fabric of a free republic.

Presents a comprehensive biography of twentieth-century author Edmund Wilson, and chronicles his life and works, friends and relationships, and his influence on modern literature.