American Legends

*Discusses the rumors surrounding Hoover's secret files and sexuality.
*Includes pictures of Hoover and important people, places, and events in his life.
"We are a fact-gathering organization only. We don't clear anybody. We don't condemn anybody." - J. Edgar Hoover
A lot of ink has been spilled covering the lives of history's most influential figures, but how much of the forest is lost for the trees? In Charles River Editors' American Legends series, readers can get caught up to speed on the lives of America's most important men and women in the time it takes to finish a commute, while learning interesting facts long forgotten or never known.
No single figure in 20th century American history inspires such opposing opinions as J. Edgar Hoover, the iconic first director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. In his time, he was arguably the most powerful non-elected figure in the U. S. government. Serving under 8 presidents (and outliving 2 of them), he remains the longest-serving head of a major government office. But in essence, Hoover died as he began-a civil servant, having been appointed by the Attorney General and serving at the pleasure of the president. But no civil servant had ever accrued to themselves the power and public attention that Hoover did.
To many Americans in the 30s, 40s, and 50s J. Edgar Hoover was a real American hero. In a country suffering from the Great Depression and the crime wave of the early 1930s, Hoover was the symbol law and order as his "G-Men" used the newest in scientific crime solving methods to bring gangsters like John Dillinger, Pretty Boy Floyd, and Baby Face Nelson to justice. In the 1940s he protected a country at war from German and Japanese spies and saboteurs. In the 1950s he let the charge against Soviet spies and domestic Communists who he saw as undermining the institutions of the country. Every boy in the country wanted to be a G-Man, helping Mr. Hoover ferret out anyone who would harm the United States.
But by the 1960s and 1970s Hoover the hero had become Hoover the villain. Various exposes and investigations revealed a darker side to the legend, one that included serious violations of the civil liberties of individuals. Hoover's G-Men, it was discovered, engaged in illegal break-ins and wiretaps of suspected subversives; they wrote fake letters that undermined the reputations of public individuals; they paid informants for information and push the groups they belonged to into committing illegal acts. It was alleged that Hoover led a personal vendetta against Martin Luther King, Jr., and the entire civil rights movement. Hoover, it was said, had stayed in office so long by gathering secret files of damaging information about politicians (including presidents). Shortly after his death in 1972, the Hoover legend was in tatters, replaced by a caricature of a vain, vindictive, power-mad petty dictator who was a closet homosexual and cross-dresser.
As with most larger than life figures, the truth lies somewhere between two myths. Views of Hoover as hero and Hoover as villain contain elements of truth. The same man who took a small insignificant office of the Justice Department and transformed it into the premier national law enforcement agency in the world was the same man who approved (or at least had knowledge of) actions that violated the Constitution he was sworn to uphold. J. Edgar Hoover was in many ways a walking contradiction, but his apparent contradictions embodied the contradictions at the heart of 20th century America.
American Legends: The Life of J. Edgar Hoover looks at the amazing life and career of the FBI Director, including the unprecedented successes, notorious lows, and all the myths and controversies inbetween. Along with pictures of Hoover and important people, places, and events in his life, you will learn about J. Edgar like you never have before, in no time at all.