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icallaci's review against another edition
3.0
This exhaustive (and exhausting) biography of J. Edgar Hoover raises more questions than it answers. The author talks about Hoover's lifelong racism but doesn't really address how he sustained his racist worldview while also upholding civil rights laws. Was he racist one day but not the next? Did he support civil rights publicly while seeking ways to undermine it behind the scenes? Most of Hoover's racist acts were described as being done "with pleasure," while anything done to support civil rights was done "grudgingly," with no supporting evidence for either view. Very little insight was offered about WHY Hoover did the things he did. The book was ok, but I didn't really learn anything new.
marisbest2's review
5.0
A bit haigiographic but generally very good, thorough and interesting biography of a man who’s name mostly rhymes with government overreach. Would have been good to spend a bit more time on the mob. But other than that does a great job of highlighting the various influences and outcomes driven by this singular public servant. Similar in many ways (though dramatically smaller in scope) to Caro’s biography of Moses.
Can’t wait for Caro to tackle Hoover in the next LBJ book if we ever get it
Can’t wait for Caro to tackle Hoover in the next LBJ book if we ever get it
lauramegan's review against another edition
challenging
dark
informative
reflective
medium-paced
5.0
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