12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Rick Geary Takes a Look at Hoover and the FBI, March 8, 2008
This review is from: J. Edgar Hoover: A Graphic Biography (Hardcover)
Rick Geary does it again with his graphic biography of an American icon, J. Edgar Hoover, director of the FBI. He uses his trademark illustrative style to chart the course of Hoover's life from birth to death, and all points in between. Hoover is now a controversial figure thanks to some scandalous, yet unproven rumors (mostly about his personal life), but Geary treats his subject matter fairly, and portrays Hoover in an unbiased fashion. This is a new venture from Geary's excellent "Treasury of Victorian Crime" series, and it does not disappoint. Anyone looking for a concise, yet thoroughly enjoyable biography of Hoover need look no further.
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
The truth is out there, January 25, 2011
This review is from: J. Edgar Hoover: A Graphic Biography (Hardcover)
J. Edgar Hoover was responsible for the creation of what is known today as the Federal Bureau of Investigation and could be claimed to have strongly influenced American, and subsequently global, history through his dossiers on politicians and other influential people. The man used intimidation and wire tapping, along with having his agents follow people and compile information on every aspect of life, to build himself an empire of secrets upon which he kept power until his death.
A Machiavellian figure, Hoover's life seems to have been as clandestine as his agency's work - he had a male partner his whole life but there is no evidence to show that they were involved sexually, though the two were inseparable and went on holiday twice a year together. Hoover also had no real female partners in real life either, instead having a very strong relationship with his mother whom he lived with until her death. The rumours of his cross-dressing take up barely a panel in the book as Geary thankfully doesn't deal in rumours but in fact.
The truth is though that there isn't much to report besides his work at building the FBI - that was his life. It was a conservative, reactionary group that treated black people as second class citizens, didn't hire any women agents, went after communists most of the time, and failed to cooperate, in fact actively block, with other government bodies.
Laid out in this well written book, drawn in Geary's inimitable style, it's hard to see what Hoover did right. He spent most of his career chasing "reds" while enforcing the real corruption within politics, an endemic problem to this day. He turned a blind eye to the mafia and actively fostered an image of himself as a hero all the while he was destroying innocent peoples' lives with accusations of being a communist.
Hoover was truly a horror of a human and would have fit in well with former President Bush's war on terror which utilised much of Hoover's tactics to get away with crimes against humanity. Hoover's legacy is that of subverting the US Constitution and forgoing its' values on liberty, instead choosing to opt for the very opposite of the best of what America stands for. He also seems to have been a sad, lonely man and often comes across as robotic rather than human in his lack of human warmth, kindness, and emotion.
Rick Geary's written/drawn an enthralling biography of one of the most notorious figures of 20th century America. He is thorough and apolitical, the conclusions I've drawn above are my own, though the facts speak for themselves. An excellent read and very enlightening, highly recommended.
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