Joyce and the G-Men: J. Edgar Hoover’s Manipulation of Modernism

Several years ago on a whim, Culleton requested James Joyce's FBI file. Hoover had Joyce under surveillance as a suspected Communist, and the chain of cross-references that Culleton followed from Joyce's file lead her to obscenity trials and, less obviously, to a plot to assassinate Irish labour leader James Larkin. Hoover devoted a great deal of energy to keeping watch on intellectuals and considered literature to be dangerous on a number of levels. Joyce and the G-Men explores how these linkages are indicative of the culture of the FBI under Hoover, and the resurgence of American anti-intellectualism.

Table of Contents:
Introduction Joyce and the G-Men: J. Edgar Hoover's Manipulation of Modernism Modern Literature and Degenerist Anxieties 'Processed by Democracy': J. Edgar Hoover in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction Hoover's Immigration Battlegrounds: Alien Radicals, Intellectuals, and Provocateurs in the Labour Movement 'Trade Papers for Revolutionaries': Modernism's Newspapers and Little Magazines Modernism, Obscenity, and Social Purity Discourse Epilogue Works Cited

About the Author :
CLAIRE A. CULLETON is Professor and Graduate Studies Coordinator in the Department of English at Kent State University, USA.

Review :
"J. Edgar Hoover could hardly tell a Joyce from a James or an ism from a wasm, and his most regular reading was the Racing Form. Yet Claire Culleton's important and engrossing book leaves no doubt that Hoover and his Loyalty Watchers went to extreme lengths to influence what Americans did - and didn't - read. Buy this book now, before today's little Hoovers ban it." - Fred Jerome, author of The Einstein File: J. Edgar Hoover's Secret War Against the World's Most Famous Scientist "Leading us through her own struggles with the censored FBI files J. Edgar Hoover maintained on many of the leading novelists, poets, and publishers of the period, Claire Culleton uncovers a startling history of official anxiety, unofficial surveillance, and covert repression. Reading provocatively between the lines of blacked-out text in Hoover's files, this book pieces together the compelling portrait of a modernism that might have been: one less pointedly snobbish, more politically engaged, and more directly accessible than the disengaged, highbrow movement we have inherited." - Sean Latham, Assistant Professor of English, University of Tulsa, and Editor, James Joyce Quarterly "For decades, the ruthless and paranoid J. Edgar Hoover used his position as Director of the FBI to defame, intimidate, and undermine writers who challenged the status quo. In Joyce and the G-Men Claire Culleton explores the tactics Hoover and others used to wage war on freedom of expression in the United States and assesses the chilling effect of Hoover's campaign on modern literature. This is an important contribution to literary history and a timely reminder that the abuse of power thrives on secrecy." - Patrick A. McCarthy, Professor of English, University of Miami "This artful and indignant book shows J. Edgar Hoover's astonishing efforts to micromanage intellectual life in the United States, and will be invaluable in helping us to understand the nightmare of organized political intolerance in our society." - Staughton Lynd, historian and lawyer. His most recent book is Lucasville: The Untold Story of a Prison Uprising.