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

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Biography 2023 Winner of the 2022 National Book Critics Circle Award in Biography Winner of the 2023 Bancroft Prize in American History and Diplomacy Winner of the American History Book Prize Shortlisted for the 2023 PEN/Jacqueline Bograd Weld Award for Biography Longlisted for the CWA ALCS Gold Dagger for Non-Fiction When he became director of the FBI, J. Edgar Hoover transformed a failing law-enforcement backwater into a modern machine. He stayed in power for decades, and created a personal fiefdom unrivalled in US history. In this masterful, multi-award-winning biography, Beverley Gage explores the full sweep of Hoover’s life and career. In Gage’s portrait, Hoover was a man admired by millions, but was also a formidable public figure who intimidated his enemies, excluded minorities from his great American project and created the foundations of the US far right. G-Man is a dramatic portrait of one of America’s most influential – and controversial – public figures. It is also an engrossing story of the making of modern America. 'Revelatory' New York Times 'Astonishing' The New Yorker 'Masterful…This book is an enduring, formidable accomplishment, a monument to the power of biography [that] now becomes the definitive work' The Washington Post  

About the Author :
Beverly Gage is professor of 20th-century American history at Yale. She is the author of The Day Wall Street Exploded, which examined the history of terrorism in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. She writes for the New York Times, the Washington Post, the New York Times Magazine, and the New Yorker, among other publications.

Review :
‘Captivating. Nuanced, incisive, and exhaustive, this is the definitive portrait of one of 20th-century America’s most consequential figures’ 'A monumental work about power, responsibility, and democracy itself. With deep research, an engaging voice, and penetrating insights, Beverly Gage has crafted a portrait of a man and a country in all its complexity and contradiction' ‘Masterful . . . an enduring, formidable accomplishment, a monument to the power of biography’ 'A masterwork of biography that reveals the contradictions of the American Century through a man who embodied nearly all of them' 'An incomparable portrait of one of the most influential and reviled figures in American history. In stunning detail . . .  this extraordinary biography raises critical questions about the scope of police authority, the contours of citizenship, and the limits of democracy that strongly resonate' 'Rigorously researched, vividly written, and, most remarkably, fair. It will long remain the definitive account' 'Hoover, at long last, has met his match. G-Man is unflinching, incisive, and riveting, part biography, part political thriller, and much more: an essential new history of twentieth-century America' 'Essential reading for those who care about government power and constraint—which should be all of us. In clear, accessible writing, Beverly Gage offers a thorough and fair-minded appraisal of the twentieth century's most powerful American, one whose legacy and shadow still hang over Washington. We should know this history, or be condemned to repeat it' ‘Crisply written, prodigiously researched, and frequently astonishing’ 'Revelatory… an acknowledgment of the complexities that made Hoover who he was, while charging the turbulent currents that eventually swept him aside' 'Gage’s penetrating account of Hoover’s career, especially his many long-eclipsed triumphs, offers a well-timed and sobering perspective as yet another institution in our fractured country struggles to maintain trust'  'Gage’s triumph is her deft navigation through Hoover’s ‘deep state,’ while reminding us of the abuse of power that remains his enduring legacy'  'Judicious… make[s] you realise…Hoover’s half-century of immense influence rested on his mastery of a very American art – the crafting of his image'  'Gage has done a service to history with this clear-eyed portrait of a man who was, for better and for worse, very much an American of his century'  'A welcome reevaluation of a law enforcement legend'