Customer Reviews

Official and Confidential: The Secret Life of J. Edgar Hoover

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

A truly interesting book. I have to say that it changed my view on the legendary man, and opens my eyes to how power corrupts. It's a bit long, but I'd recommend this to anyone interested in American politics in the 20th century.

Anthony Summers presents J. Edgar Hoover as a man who insisted his agents lead a monastic life style while he enjoyed good whisky, gambling, and free vacations. He vilified homosexuals while himself involved with a male partner and he was capable of cross-dressing at private parties. He portrayed himself as the bulwark against crime yet coddled the Mafia and resisted any attempt at stopping their illegal activities. Ranted against communism but diverted resources to concentrate on building files on U.S. Congressmen and politicians without effectively stopping the Soviet intelligence attack throughout the cold war.

It is a frightening story of political maneuvering, blackmailing and excesses solely to maintain power. Summer's book includes extensive notes and bibliography. Written in 1993 it does not deal with the great failures that have been revealed in the past fifteen years such as the Robert Hanssen and Aldrich Ames cases. It does imply that Hoover's emphasis of show and power could have resulted in the FBI functioning to fit his image and maintain his power base at the expense of protecting American Security.

Once I had begun to read this book, it took everything I had to put it down in order to get some sleep and do my schoolwork. The power that Hoover possessed and how he fed on the fears of government officials who tried to kick him out, is absolutly fantastic to read about. To learn how corrupt the man who was considered by many to be an American hero was proved to be among the many elements of this book that keeps you wanting to read it. I had no idea that Hoover was a closet transvestite until I read this book, but now I enjoy reading this book, both for pleasure and research. I recommend it to anyone who wants to read some interesting stuff!

"Official And Confidential" is a great work that serves as a document about the abuses of power due to one man's private perversions. Summers writes an incredibly powerful book that explores many, many subjects. Never did I think one man could have so much control, I was proven wrong by this great work. J.Edgar Hoover was a man with mental problems that were secret perversions, he used it to his use. This book is like watching a great movie. It has all the elements of a great dramatic thriller. We explore the shadowy truths behind the assassinations of JFK, Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King. Even the death of John Dillinger is questioned here. "Official & Confidential" can also serve as a study of the perversions of power and government. The myth of the conservative 50s and 60s is shattered here. There was more going on behind the curtain of power than we knew. This is a masterpiece.

This book is absolutely gripping. It is extremely well-written, unlike many history books which are all-too-often repetitive and esoteric. The book takes one through the years of FBI director J.Edgar Hoover. It includes a colorful cast of movers and shakers in 20th century American history: Cardinal Spellman of New York, Roy Cohn, Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon, Eugene McCarthy, assorted gangsters, businessmen, and, of course, J. Edgar Hoover's faithful FBI assistant director (and gay lover) Clyde Tolson.

Tolson, by the way, is himself quite interesting in that he is descrbed as the FBI's ultimate brown-nose and hatchet man. He is also described in the book as Hoover's "alter-ego", and also a "spinx" and a "first class a**hole". FBI officers seem to have a begrudged affection for Hoover, but no such warmth towards Tolson. At Hoover's funeral he is given Hoover's memorial flag, as he nearly assumes the role of the spouse of the deceased; yet he appears to be "more confused than distraught".

The history enthusiast will be fascinated by the abuses of power and the levels of crookedness in the American government. The psychology enthusiast will be fascinated by Hoover's complex profile: a law enforcer who crusades against communism yet denies the existance of organized crime; a patriot and a war-hawk who never served in the military; a macho conservative who opposed gays serving in the FBI who also leads a secret gay life of his own; and an obstensibly cool and collected G-man who is at baseline paranoid, neurotic and alcoholic.

Hoover and Tolson are also described as "chislers" who ate lunch at the same restaraunt everyday and never paid for their meals. They would vacation together near race tracks and their bets would be covered by the owners of the racetracks. They also hated Martin Luther King and the civil rights movement and they made stereotypical remarks about Mexicans. In short-they were a couple of filthy, bigoted, cheap-skates; real scum-bags.

I would say that the author's bibliography is basically solid, although parts of his narrative are based on a single eye-witness account; indeed a memory that could be faulty (such as the famously repeated hotel episode where the FBI director was alledged to have appeared in drag).

However, it seems fair to assertain that Hoover and Tolson were a gay couple, in that the author supports that claim with several eye-witness accounts, photographic and circumstantial evidences. Other abuses of power, wire-taps and attempts to blackmail politicians and others with damning and embarrassing dossiers have also been well documented in other biographies of Hoover.

All-in-all a shocking and absorbing biography of one of the most interesting (if not infamous) figures of American history.

Being a great fan of biographies, I thought this was going to be not just interesting but,hopefully, entertaining.
Sadly I was disappointed on both counts. Yes, it's OK as a superficial guide to the subject, but it has all the faults of mediocre journalism - attention grabbing headlines, but little content. It is little more that a collection of chronological episodes in the life of Hoover, rather like a series of news cuttings arranged in date order. It never gets below skin level and you are left with a murky story of the FBI whose chief officer one one J. Edgar Hoover - and a pretty nasty one at that.
I would say more if I could, but I'm afraid that's all I learnt from this mediocre book.

A thrilling tale about power, intelligence, politics, US history, extortion, the Mafia, the Kennedys, sex and the city.
Written about the probably most powerful man of the 20th century.
A must read if you want to understand how politics is made.
A great read if you love suspension.
A very bad read if you prefer to keep your believe in truth in politics.

Reading this book might bring you to a conclusion that there is no "white" or "black", "good" or "bad". But all shades of grey. Once and today...

This book reads like a tabloid, and it's hard to consider it could be more than just that.

Not only are sources not quoted in a scientific historical way, but the book also rests heavily on the use of unsubtle biased language against Hoover. I do not doubt that Hoover used illegal means for his person goals, but I would much rather have read a book that gives me the feeling I should take it seriously, because it shows on every page and footnote it takes itself and its investigation serious. This unbalanced account of his life has flipped over to one side, proclaiming Hoover the bad guy, without exploring even the possiblilty of a positive side of the man. It's as if the writer settles a scoure here. It left me with the uneasy feeling I do not know WHAT to believe and what to discard.

If you like a good scandal, this is your book. If you want historical facts, look elsewhere

The book is well written and documented and will stir memories from your past and leave you questioning our government. It will provide you with background information on some of the countries most difficult moments, President Kennedy's assasination, Robert Kennedy's death and the shooting of Martin Luther King to name a few. You'll be amazed at why Mr. Hoover remained the director of the FBI for almost sixty years, and why no American President would dare remove him.

Let me begin by saying that I'm no fan of the late J. Edgar Hoover. His refusal for many years to investigate both organized crime and civil rights violations amounted to pure dereliction of duty and his persecution of anyone whose political views differed from his own was tyrannical and downright un-American (a label that would have shocked Hoover). Still, I'll even give the devil his due and it must be admitted, as more balanced biographies, such as Gentry's and Powers', have observed, that Hoover did largely create the FBI, one of the greatest law enforcement agencies in the world, and also did much to professionalize law enforcement and bring it into the 20th Century. That's not the problem I have with this book. It's a cheap shot, designed mainly to prove that Hoover was a closet homosexual and transvestite being blackmailed into submission by the Mob. This may or may not be the case--I've long suspected Hoover was a fag but in the absence of proof have always been inclined to give him the benefit of the doubt--but Summers' "evidence," consisting mostly of gossip and hearsay, is unconvincing. It's also difficult to believe that Hoover, whatever his vices or other faults, could have been stupid enough to place himself in a compromising position. Summers' sources speak of photos showing Hoover and Clyde Tolson engaged in homosexual acts but no such pictures have ever turned up. The whole theory is spurious. If the Mob was blackmailing Hoover into submission, then how did the Kennedys force Hoover to finally move against organized crime in the early '60's? Moreover, while even the FBI admits that the momentum of its anti-Mob drive slowed down after JFK's assassination, it never really ended either. The writing style is unimpressive (especially the author's childish and annoying attempt to personalize the Director by referring to him throughout as "Edgar"), the source notes are inadequate, and the whole product leaves much to be desired. As to the quality of the alleged research, any author who takes Jay Robert Nash's silly and long disproven theory of Dillinger's survival seriously can't really be said to have done his homework. This is shoddy journalism at its absolute worst.