A biography of J. Edgar Hoover, head of the FBI for 50 years, reveals the shocking extent of his sinister influence over American politics and society and exposes his controversial personal life. The book is based on 700 interviews and tens of thousands of documents.
Official and Confidential: The Secret Life of J Edgar Hoover
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"I read Official and Confidential with mounting horror, fascination, revulsion... Enthralling" (Paul Theroux )
"Summers' book is not just a history of a single hero-sized hypocrite, it is a history of a vast national delusion" (Hilary Mantel Spectator )
"The exposure we have been waiting for these last forty years" (Norman Mailer )
"Garbage... Innuendo, lies" (Cartha Deloach, Former Close Aide To Hoover )
"The book is more exciting, and more damning, than the film...This is bold, excoriating, unmissable stuff." (Independent on Sunday ) --This text refers to the Paperback edition.
"Summers' book is not just a history of a single hero-sized hypocrite, it is a history of a vast national delusion" (Hilary Mantel Spectator )
"The exposure we have been waiting for these last forty years" (Norman Mailer )
"Garbage... Innuendo, lies" (Cartha Deloach, Former Close Aide To Hoover )
"The book is more exciting, and more damning, than the film...This is bold, excoriating, unmissable stuff." (Independent on Sunday ) --This text refers to the Paperback edition.
Book Description
The sensational and definitive account of the life of J Edgar Hoover, America's most celebrated FBI Director, who is now the subject of the J Edgar movie starring Leonardo DiCaprio
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
11 of 11 people found the following review helpful
By Mrs. A. Hunt
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
When this book came out, a lot was made of the sexual side of this man, that Anthony Summers found out Hoover was a cross dresser, a homosexual. Yet the critics missed the main point of the book which is to show just how corrupt this man was, how he thought he was untouchable, his Mafia links, how he held the files on every American who mattered. This guy could crush a public figure with a blink of an eye.
To many Hoover was a public figure to be held in high regard, a true American. Yet we find out he was a racist who spent his life tormented by the thought that he himself came from black blood.
What scared me more than anything about this expose was the fact that this man was allowed free reign to do whatever he pleased under the guise of bieng the head of the FBI. His involvement and the coverage in the book on the deaths of John Dillinger and Marilyn Monroe as well as the death of JFK shocked me.
To anyone interested in recent American history, please read this. It will cast a new light on the macinations of the FBI under this man, it will show just how corrupt the American system can be when in the wrong hands.
The fact he was a cross dressing homosexual was bad enough (although the vision of him in a dress and high heels is a great source of entertainment) but this book goes far deeper.
I never liked Hoover, always thought he looked shifty, this books shows just how shifty he was.
Again Anthony Summers has written a concise thorough investigation into the mind and life of another American public figure of the "do as I say and not as I do" brigade.
A brilliant book which never loses pace in it's writing
To many Hoover was a public figure to be held in high regard, a true American. Yet we find out he was a racist who spent his life tormented by the thought that he himself came from black blood.
What scared me more than anything about this expose was the fact that this man was allowed free reign to do whatever he pleased under the guise of bieng the head of the FBI. His involvement and the coverage in the book on the deaths of John Dillinger and Marilyn Monroe as well as the death of JFK shocked me.
To anyone interested in recent American history, please read this. It will cast a new light on the macinations of the FBI under this man, it will show just how corrupt the American system can be when in the wrong hands.
The fact he was a cross dressing homosexual was bad enough (although the vision of him in a dress and high heels is a great source of entertainment) but this book goes far deeper.
I never liked Hoover, always thought he looked shifty, this books shows just how shifty he was.
Again Anthony Summers has written a concise thorough investigation into the mind and life of another American public figure of the "do as I say and not as I do" brigade.
A brilliant book which never loses pace in it's writing
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
This book is an excellent account of the life and times of J Edgar Hoover. It reveals that a man who is still considered to be one of the finest lawmen in the 20th century was, in fact, a morally corrupt individual who would use any dirty trick to get his own way.
The book starts with Hoover's early life, and takes the reader through his schooling and his first jobs with the Justice Department. It also shows that with the connections he made and the decisions of his bosses at the time, he was able to secure himself the job as Director of the Bureau of Investigation, later to be the FBI.
This book is completely engrossing and apart from the fact the author engages his readers through intelligent and fluid narration, the one thing that keeps you reading is the disbelief that a man in his position could have stooped so low to get what he wanted.
His predilection for blackmail was obvious from early on in his career. He was an intelligent individual who realised early on that he could manipulate the most powerful men in the country, through the fear that he had something on them, so believable was the concept that he wiretapped them. His ability to ride roughshod over the civil liberties of his fellow countrymen was absolutely breathtaking. It was not just the fact that he listened to salacious pieces of gossip and sexual tittle-tattle, but the fact that every whisper, suspicion or just malicious rumour was noted and filed for use later on.
His unwillingness to pursue the Mafia, his treatment of fellow homosexuals, his blackmailing of Presidents and politicians, his inability to cooperate with other federal authorities, his attitude to civil liberties, African Americans and any one he considered lesser to himself is astounding. It is shocking that a man with such a narrow-mind and appetite for power could run such a powerful agency for all that time, abusing the rights of others with mindless abandon, even his friends, like the Agent Melvin Purvis, were not exempt from his petty tantrums.
I would heartily recommend this book, it will leave you feeling amazed and shocked but so engrossing is the narrative that you will not be able to put it down. This book is worth every penny, one of my favourite books this year. Anthony Summers has done a fantastic job and I look forward to reading his other works.
The book starts with Hoover's early life, and takes the reader through his schooling and his first jobs with the Justice Department. It also shows that with the connections he made and the decisions of his bosses at the time, he was able to secure himself the job as Director of the Bureau of Investigation, later to be the FBI.
This book is completely engrossing and apart from the fact the author engages his readers through intelligent and fluid narration, the one thing that keeps you reading is the disbelief that a man in his position could have stooped so low to get what he wanted.
His predilection for blackmail was obvious from early on in his career. He was an intelligent individual who realised early on that he could manipulate the most powerful men in the country, through the fear that he had something on them, so believable was the concept that he wiretapped them. His ability to ride roughshod over the civil liberties of his fellow countrymen was absolutely breathtaking. It was not just the fact that he listened to salacious pieces of gossip and sexual tittle-tattle, but the fact that every whisper, suspicion or just malicious rumour was noted and filed for use later on.
His unwillingness to pursue the Mafia, his treatment of fellow homosexuals, his blackmailing of Presidents and politicians, his inability to cooperate with other federal authorities, his attitude to civil liberties, African Americans and any one he considered lesser to himself is astounding. It is shocking that a man with such a narrow-mind and appetite for power could run such a powerful agency for all that time, abusing the rights of others with mindless abandon, even his friends, like the Agent Melvin Purvis, were not exempt from his petty tantrums.
I would heartily recommend this book, it will leave you feeling amazed and shocked but so engrossing is the narrative that you will not be able to put it down. This book is worth every penny, one of my favourite books this year. Anthony Summers has done a fantastic job and I look forward to reading his other works.
18 of 19 people found the following review helpful
By Ian Millard
Format:Hardcover
This was a great read until almost the final page. The author takes the reader back through the life of this American icon and collates facts which, until recently, were either unknown or simply gossipped about in the odd documentary or article: Hoover as, almost certainly, a transvestite gay, who lived with a long term companion (officially an FBI officer on the payroll) and as a chief of secret police (by any other name) whose main stock in trade was collecting the dirt on possible threats to his position. This latter is certainly a trait of all top secret police people (examples might include Beria, Himmler and Bormann, the last not exactly a secret policeman but a hybrid).
The book goes through Hoover's career and makes the point that he did not, contrary to popular belief, found the F.B.I. at all, that he investigated those whose arrest would make good publicity, that he neglected to chase those criminals who were in the background, like the Mafia (whose chiefs had plenty of information about Hoover's own peccadilloes) etc. There are also interesting bits about the Kennedy assassination and about the WW2 spy Popov (see his own book Spy Counter Spy).
I thought the book very good indeed, weakened really only by the very end, where an attempt is made to diagnose Hoover retrospectively via various experts in psychiatric disorders. That weakened the book, not least because the conclusion, typical of psychiatry (?) is that Hoover was a paranoiac, also a sociopath, also a sexual deviant, etc...no real conclusion.
Well worth reading and a salutary lesson in the old tale of how power corrupts, though the author does make the point (not very strongly, though) that the organization Hoover created did and does have strong suits, particularly in the technical aspects of its work. The F.B.I. has had many many successes to place against its failures.
The book goes through Hoover's career and makes the point that he did not, contrary to popular belief, found the F.B.I. at all, that he investigated those whose arrest would make good publicity, that he neglected to chase those criminals who were in the background, like the Mafia (whose chiefs had plenty of information about Hoover's own peccadilloes) etc. There are also interesting bits about the Kennedy assassination and about the WW2 spy Popov (see his own book Spy Counter Spy).
I thought the book very good indeed, weakened really only by the very end, where an attempt is made to diagnose Hoover retrospectively via various experts in psychiatric disorders. That weakened the book, not least because the conclusion, typical of psychiatry (?) is that Hoover was a paranoiac, also a sociopath, also a sexual deviant, etc...no real conclusion.
Well worth reading and a salutary lesson in the old tale of how power corrupts, though the author does make the point (not very strongly, though) that the organization Hoover created did and does have strong suits, particularly in the technical aspects of its work. The F.B.I. has had many many successes to place against its failures.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Oh Mr Hoover
Fantastic "cant put it down" book gives a great insight to the man himself, a very good read and very very informative. Read more
Published 2 months ago by Mark Roberts
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent Read
An interesting and thought provoking book which gives much food for thought about 20th Century American politics. Well worth reading.
Published 2 months ago by N B SHAW
4.0 out of 5 stars
Hoover goodie or baddie?
Interesting book about a very complex and devious character, would have liked more details about the Kennedy assassination though, but still very worth reading
Published 2 months ago by john armitage
3.0 out of 5 stars
Wicked
You don't have to read any book on J.E.H. to know he was one wicked vengeful man, as are a large majority of men/women who enter politics..... the world over.... Read more
Published 14 months ago by James
1.0 out of 5 stars
Th secret life of J Edgar Hoover.
A very interesting subject, but very poorly written. My 10 year old son could have written a much better book and more interesting. I would not recomend this book.
Published 14 months ago by hairy harry
5.0 out of 5 stars
An eye opener
I thoroughly enjoyed 'J Edgar Hoover'. I have seen the FBI headquaters building in Washington named after him, and it's amazing to think how someone with his devious record could... Read more
Published 15 months ago by W. R. Robinson
2.0 out of 5 stars
..mostly rumour, innuendo and hearsay...
This 1993 book by Anthony Summers is devoted to 'accentuating the negative' regarding J. Edgar Hoover. Read more
Published on 14 Mar 2010 by J. P. Ryder
5.0 out of 5 stars
Secret Life of J Edgar Hoover, Secret and Confidential
A enthralling book, I couldn't put it down until the end. Very informative on many murky subjects.
Published on 6 Aug 2009 by Jeeves
5.0 out of 5 stars
Ultimate blackmail
An absolutely brilliant book that blows the lid off the myth of J. Edgar Hoover as a top crimefighter. Read more
Published on 29 Nov 2008 by Mr. R. J. Wilson
5.0 out of 5 stars
Expose of FBI Chief's disturbing life
Official and Confidential is another addition to Anthony Summers' superb books about the seamy underbelly of United States twentieth century politics. Read more
Published on 13 April 2007 by Mr. Tristan Martin
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