G-MAN: J. Edgar Hoover and the Making of the American Century

The core book by Yale Professor Beverly Gage is a "masterpiece" and has garnered the Pulitzer Prize for Biography, the National Book Critics Circle Award in Biography, the Bancroft Prize in American History, the LA Times Book Prize for Biography and many other awards. Gage details a Hoover who was born, raised and educated in Washington D.C. who joined the Justice Department as a young lawyer who went on to create and build the FBI in his own image (white, male, college educated, Christian and socially conservative.) He also brought professionalism to the Bureau and oversaw the huge growth in its responsibilities. Among the issues and personalities that will be examined are: the Palmer Raids, the transformation of the FBI from a resource to crime fighting, espionage, the Red Scare, the Rosenbergs, freedom summer, Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, COINTELPRO, organized crime, FDR, JFK, LBJ, Nixon, Clyde Tolson, Mark Felt and much more. The book is sure to jump start spirited discussions about the man, his legacy and the America that both created him and that he shaped.