Books
March, 1987
Richard Gid Powers' Secrecy and Power (Free Press) has to be the definitive biography of one of this nation's most powerful men, J. Edgar Hoover. On May 10, 1924, Hoover was named acting director of the FBI, a position he would hold until the day of his death, May 2, 1972. That comes to 48 years as head of a Federal police force that could surveil, arrest, harass and indict. What Secrecy and Power shows us in a balanced and thoroughly researched way is that Hoover came from a long line of bureau...
