A review by icallaci
G-Man: J. Edgar Hoover and the Making of the American Century by Beverly Gage

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.