The FBI and J. Edgar Hoover: The History and Legacy of the Federal Bureau of Investigation Under Its First Director
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Narrated by:
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Bill Hare
About this listen
"We are a fact-gathering organization only. We don’t clear anybody. We don’t condemn anybody.” (J. Edgar Hoover)
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 federal government. Serving under eight presidents (and outliving two of them), he remains the longest-serving head of a major government office, and Hoover died as he began: a civil servant, having been appointed by the Attorney General and serving at the pleasure of the president. That said, no civil servant had ever accrued to themselves the power and public attention that Hoover did.
To many Americans in the 1930s, ‘40s, and ‘50s, 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 of 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 led 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.
However, 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, wrote fake letters that undermined the reputations of public individuals, paid informants for information, and pushed 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) that 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 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. The director who ordered his agents in the 1960s to destroy the Ku Klux Klan when they were engaging in violent acts against Civil Rights protesters also surveyed the leading figure of the Civil Rights Movement. J. Edgar Hoover was in many ways a walking contradiction, but his apparent contradictions embodied the issues at the heart of 20th century America.
The FBI and J. Edgar Hoover: The History and Legacy of the Federal Bureau of Investigation Under Its First Director examines the events that led to the formation of the FBI, the most important cases it was involved in, and the controversies surrounding Hoover’s methods. You will learn about the FBI under Hoover like never before.
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State of War
- MS-13 and El Salvador's World of Violence
- By: William Wheeler
- Narrated by: William Wheeler
- Length: 3 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
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Born in Los Angeles, the gang MS-13 was founded in the 1980s by Salvadoran refugees who had been hardened in a civil war stoked by American foreign policy. Foreign correspondent William Wheeler tracks MS-13 from LA, where he meets the founders of the gang, to El Salvador, where three generations of Salvadorans have been drawn into an escalating cycle of conflict. State of War tells the tragic story of a brutal civil war that has never ended.
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Great insight!
- By jose flores on 05-19-23
By: William Wheeler
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The Plot to Betray America
- How Team Trump Embraced Our Enemies, Compromised Our Security, and How We Can Fix It
- By: Malcolm Nance
- Narrated by: Oliver Wyman
- Length: 13 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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In The Plot to Betray America, New York Times best-selling author and renowned intelligence expert Malcolm Nance reveals exactly how President Trump and his inner circle conspired, coordinated, communicated, and eventually strategized to commit the greatest acts of treachery in the history of the United States: Compromising the presidential oath of office in exchange for power and personal enrichment.
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Fantastic Read
- By Customer on 11-14-19
By: Malcolm Nance
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Whistleblowers
- Honesty in America from Washington to Trump
- By: Allison Stanger
- Narrated by: Kate Mulligan
- Length: 9 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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Misconduct by those in high places is always dangerous to reveal. Whistleblowers thus face conflicting impulses: by challenging and exposing transgressions by the powerful, they perform a vital public service - yet they always suffer for it. This episodic history brings to light how whistleblowing, an important but unrecognized cousin of civil disobedience, has held powerful elites accountable in America.
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Wow!
- By Private on 11-15-20
By: Allison Stanger
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Crimes and Cover-ups in American Politics
- 1776-1963
- By: Donald Jeffries, Ron Paul - foreword
- Narrated by: Lars Mikaelson
- Length: 13 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
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Jeffries spares no one and nothing in this explosive new book. The atrocities of Union troops during the Civil War, and Allied troops during World War II, are documented in great detail. The Nuremberg Trials are presented as the antithesis of justice. In the follow-up to his previous, bestselling book Hidden History: An Exposé of Modern Crimes, Conspiracies, and Cover-Ups in American Politics, Jeffries demonstrates that crimes, corruption, and conspiracies didn't start with the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.
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Southern apologetic nonesense
- By Amazon Customer on 07-26-20
By: Donald Jeffries, and others
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Surrounded by Enemies
- What if Kennedy Survived Dallas?
- By: Bryce Zabel
- Narrated by: Edd Hall
- Length: 8 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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If President John Kennedy had survived the ambush at Dealey Plaza in Dallas a half-century ago, what other twists might history have taken? In his meticulously researched novel, Surrounded by Enemies: What If Kennedy Survived Dallas, author Bryce Zabel delivers a supercharged but plausible alternative narrative of the turbulent 1960s after our charismatic president escapes unscathed on November 22, 1963.
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Makes a classic "alternate history" mistake
- By Norman on 11-16-14
By: Bryce Zabel
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The Lavender Scare
- The Cold War Persecution of Gays and Lesbians in the Federal Government
- By: David K. Johnson
- Narrated by: Timothy Andrés Pabon
- Length: 10 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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Winner of three book awards, The Lavender Scare masterfully traces the origins of contemporary sexual politics to Cold War hysteria over national security. Drawing on newly declassified documents and interviews with former government officials, historian David Johnson chronicles how the myth that homosexuals threatened national security determined government policy for decades, ruined thousands of lives, and pushed many to suicide. As Johnson shows, this myth not only outlived McCarthy but, by the 1960s, helped launch a new civil rights struggle.
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a history lesson worth knowing
- By SoMi on 01-11-21
By: David K. Johnson
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Strongmen
- Mussolini to the Present
- By: Ruth Ben-Ghiat
- Narrated by: Chloe Cannon
- Length: 9 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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Ruth Ben-Ghiat is the expert on the "strongman" playbook employed by authoritarian demagogues from Mussolini to Putin. In Strongmen, she lays bare the blueprint these leaders have followed over the past 100 years, and empowers us to recognize, resist, and prevent their disastrous rule in the future.
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Fascism expert talks fascism
- By sparky on 12-04-20
By: Ruth Ben-Ghiat
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Spying in America
- Espionage from the Revolutionary War to the Dawn of the Cold War
- By: Michael J. Sulick
- Narrated by: Kevin Pierce
- Length: 10 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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Can you keep a secret? Maybe you can, but the United States government cannot. Since the birth of our country, nations large and small, from Russia and China to Ghana and Ecuador, have stolen the most precious secrets of the United States. Written by Michael Sulick, former director of CIA's clandestine service, Spying in America presents a history of more than 30 espionage cases inside the United States.
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Good history, bad analysis
- By Crus458 on 02-20-21
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The Fall of the FBI
- How a Once Great Agency Became a Threat to Democracy
- By: Thomas J. Baker
- Narrated by: David Marantz
- Length: 11 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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Americans have lost faith in the Federal Bureau of Investigation, an institution they once regarded as the world’s greatest law-enforcement agency. Thomas Baker spent many years with the FBI and is deeply troubled by this loss of faith. Specific lapses have come to light and each is thoroughly discussed in this book: Why did they happen? What changed? The answer begins days after the 9/11 attacks when the FBI underwent a significant change in culture.
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We have to stop them
- By E B. on 07-01-23
By: Thomas J. Baker
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The Folly and the Glory
- America, Russia, and Political Warfare: 1945-2020
- By: Tim Weiner
- Narrated by: Stefan Rudnicki
- Length: 10 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
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From Tim Weiner, winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award, an urgent and gripping account of the 75-year battle between the US and Russia that led to the election and impeachment of an American president.
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Worst Narration Ever
- By Amy on 02-15-21
By: Tim Weiner
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Betrayal in Dallas
- LBJ, the Pearl Street Mafia, and the Murder of President Kennedy
- By: Mark North
- Narrated by: Erik Davies
- Length: 6 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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Here's what we now know: John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas by Mafia contract killers hired by Louisiana mob boss Carlos Marcello. Kennedy was killed in that city because it was the only place in the country where a crime of that magnitude could be committed without fear of punishment. Long-time local district attorney Henry Wade, an LBJ crony who would have sole jurisdiction over the prosecution of those responsible, had been corrupted by the local Civello crime family. Lyndon B. Johnson, while a U.S. senator during the 1950s, had accepted bribes from the same mobsters so that they could avoid deportation.
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The Gangland Point of View
- By margot on 10-20-13
By: Mark North
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From Warsaw with Love
- Polish Spies, the CIA, and the Forging of an Unlikely Alliance
- By: John Pomfret
- Narrated by: Donald Corren
- Length: 8 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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From the award-winning and acclaimed author of The Beautiful Country and the Middle Kingdom, From Warsaw with Love tells the epic story of how Polish intelligence officers forged an alliance with the CIA in the twilight of the Cold War. In 1990, soon after the Polish people voted in their first democratic election since the 1930s, the young Polish government sent a veteran spy, who’d battled the West for decades, to rescue six American officers trapped in Baghdad.
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Fascinating and well researched
- By wacek szymkowiak on 07-23-24
By: John Pomfret
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Justice Corrupted
- How the Left Weaponized Our Legal System
- By: Ted Cruz
- Narrated by: Timothy Andrés Pabon
- Length: 9 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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The left has corrupted the U.S. legal system. Wielding the law as a weapon, arrogant judges and lawless prosecutors are intimidating, silencing, and even imprisoning Americans who stand in the way of their radical agenda. Their "enemies list" even includes parents who dare to speak up for their children at school board meetings. In this shocking new book, Senator Ted Cruz takes listeners inside the justice system, showing how the wrong hands on the levers of power can strangle liberty, crush opposition, and wreck lives.
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Very Informative
- By Michael Screws on 01-03-23
By: Ted Cruz
What listeners say about The FBI and J. Edgar Hoover: The History and Legacy of the Federal Bureau of Investigation Under Its First Director
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Lady Pamela
- 02-20-22
Text Goes Here
Short and succinct review of Hoover's reign in government. The things we consider illegal in 2022 were normal in earlier times. Illuminating. This book is not subtle about pointing out Hoover's faults and jealousies.
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- Cat_Named_Middle_C
- 03-13-22
Makes a tacked-on defense of Hoover at the end
The book is a good intro to Hoover's life, machinations, and work as FBI director. The intro, fairly, paints him as a contradictory set of opposing forces. The end of the book, however, makes an off-putting attempt to be "fair to Hoover," implying that it's unfortunate he's known for his secret files. The book ends by quoting a Lord Acton line that "great men are almost always bad men," which is not only untrue but a very thin excuse for the damaging actions Hoover took against civil liberties, the civil rights movement including Dr. King, etc. The misguided quote implies that to be a "great man," one must do damage. In Hoover's case, the damage was almost always intentional.
On the plus side, the book does mention Hoover's obsession with leftists and Reds while seemingly not caring to defend Freedom Riders of the Civil Rights movement, and having his office literally seek to blackmail King into ending his own life.
Additionally, I'm not sure why the editors felt the need to whitewash Hoover's personal life, stating that there was no evidence he ever had a partner of either sex. (I'm sure Hoover's longtime partner would have disagreed). Why the book tries too hard to cover up certain aspects of Hoover's life, I'm not sure, especially since Hoover made no attempt to protect the reputation of others.
Overall, the book tries to "be fair to" Hoover, portraying itself as balanced and not sensational, but ends up almost apologizing for his misdeeds. 3/5
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- MKZ
- 05-15-24
Did not enjoy the narrator…monotone
Narrator was boring…no inflection. Also, the book was so short for using a whole credit.
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