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G-Man (Pulitzer Prize Winner)
J. Edgar Hoover and the Making of the American Century
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Narrated by:
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Gabra Zackman
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Written by:
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Beverly Gage
About this listen
Winner of the 2023 Pulitzer Prize in Biography
Winner of the 2022 National Book Critics Circle Award in Biography, the 2023 Bancroft Prize in American History and Diplomacy, and the 43rd LA Times Book Prize in Biography | Finalist for the 2023 PEN/Jacqueline Bograd Weld Award for Biography
Named a Best Book of 2022 by The Atlantic, The Washington Post and Smithsonian Magazine and a New York Times Top 100 Notable Books of 2022
“Masterful…This book is an enduring, formidable accomplishment, a monument to the power of biography [that] now becomes the definitive work”—The Washington Post
“A nuanced portrait in a league with the best of Ron Chernow and David McCullough.”—The Wall Street Journal
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.
©2022 Beverly Gage (P)2022 Penguin AudioYou may also enjoy...
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What the critics say
WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE FOR BIOGRAPHY
Winner of the New-York Historical Society’s 2023 Barbara and David Zalaznick Book Prize
Winner of the Organization of American Historians 2023 Ellis W. Hawley Prize
Winner of the 43rd Los Angeles Times Book Prize in Biography
Finalist for the 2023 ABA Silver Gavel Award in Books, the 2023 Mark Lynton History Prize, and the Biographers International Organization 2022 Plutarch Award
The New York Times "TOP 100 NOTABLE BOOKS OF 2022"
The Atlantic "Top 10 Books of the Year"
The Washington Post "Top Ten Books of 2022"
Publishers Weekly * "Top Ten Books of 2022"
Smithsonian Magazine "The Ten Best History Books of 2022"
"Revelatory...an acknowledgment of the complexities that made Hoover who he was, while charging the turbulent currents that eventually swept him aside."—The New York Times
“[A] crisply written, prodigiously researched, and frequently astonishing new biography”—The New Yorker
“Gage’s penetrating account of Hoover’s career, especially his many long-eclipsed triumphs, offers a well-timed and sobering perspective as yet another institution in our fractured country struggles to maintain trust.”—The Atlantic
What listeners say about G-Man (Pulitzer Prize Winner)
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- David Zulkoskey
- 2024-09-14
An epic tale of an American icon
This book presents an honest assessment of Hoover. It is a lengthy book that will not disappoint the reader. One sees his private and public life with clarity. Unfortunately Hoover strove to manipulate and build the reputation of the FBI in a standard that would not tolerate proactive change. He is a man of his time period and few would accept his principles today without question. He is not a man to be liked nor respected but he was determined in his commitment to his ideals. G-Man is an excellent portrait of this American icon.
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