Puppetmaster: The Secret Life of J. Edgar Hoover [Hardcover]

Richard Hack (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 12, 2004

<DIV>J. Edgar Hoover, the most powerful lawman in America for over fifty years, was also the country's most controversial and feared public servant. His career as director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation spanned nine different presidential administrations and survived a dozen attempts to sweep him from office. During that time, Hoover completely reshaped domestic law enforcement as he expanded the reach of the FBI and transformed his G-men into an elite national crime fighting division. Despite his contributions to the criminal justice system, Hoover fell from favor soon after his death, the victim of rampant rumors and innuendo. In</div>

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

As in his smart biographies of Howard Hughes (Hughes) and Ted Turner/Rupert Murdoch (Clash of the Titans), Hack brings a novelist's flair for drama and a journalist's nose for truth to the life of another controversial figure. With unsourced renditions of Hoover's and others' internal monologues, Hack creates some transparency for the legendary FBI chief's tantalizingly opaque psyche. His most controversial conclusion about Hoover's private life is that, despite his weird intimacy with sidekick Clyde Tolson and his household collections of male nudes and Chinese ceramics, Hoover was not gay. Rather, he was dependent for sexual excitement on furtive perusal of smut from the FBI's Obscene Files and was enamored of certain Hollywood stars, named here. Hack's account of Hoover's public life, meanwhile, zings. He covers Hoover's career from his initial exploits tracking down dissidents through his headline-grabbing pursuit of Depression-era outlaws to his postwar crusade against left-wing subversion, one increasingly out of step with the country during his Vietnam-era decline. Hack's balanced but quite critical treatment details the brilliant self-promotion, which made Hoover a national hero, as well as the paranoid anticommunism, the secret files on presidents and pinkos alike, the illegal surveillance and wiretaps and the racist antagonism to the Civil Rights movement that later made him a villain in many eyes. Hack says too little about the FBI as an institution or its crime-fighting methods, treating it mainly as an extension of Hoover's personal and political agenda. But he does offer a live-wire biography of a determined, energetic, lonely and insecure man who comes off here as much a puppet as master, a consummate bureaucratic infighter all too pathetically aware of his vulnerability to shifts in political power. 6 pages of b&w photos.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

About the Author

<DIV>Hack has been an investigative writer for 20 years, covering Hollywood and the media for much of that time. He frequently appears on television as a commentator.</DIV> --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 455 pages
• Publisher: New Millennium; First Edition edition (April 12, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1893224872
• ISBN-13: 978-1893224872
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.4 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.9 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (21 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,075,500 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Extremes of Light and Dark in One Human Being, May 5, 2004

By 

Daniel J. Maloney "Daniel J. Maloney" (Saint Paul, MN United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Puppetmaster: The Secret Life of J. Edgar Hoover (Hardcover)

Puppetmaster chronicles the life and career of J. Edgar Hoover, Director of the FBI for over fifty years that lasted continuously across the landscape of eight different U.S. presidents.

Author Richard Hack brings us an engaging look at Hoover's career and his enormous influence in structuring the FBI as an important and powerful law enforcement agency concerned with many of the homeland security issues of the time.

Hoover is an ultimate icon of how one human being can do so much good and yet, at the same time, resort to some of the most corrupt immoral and un-American tactics to achieve his goals.

His life is an example of a highly organized and determined American who believed he was doing what was best for America during his fifty year directorship, He accomplished a tremendous amount in building a strong and stable agency that was truly valuable, and continues to be so, in assisting criminal investigations and apprehensions throughout the country.

Unfortunately, J. Edgar Hoover was a human being who became a bit too impressed with the aura he had created about himself and his very profound human insecurity made him a dangerous person. He was the living embodiment of the axiom that 'power corrurpts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.'

In the interests of national security, Hoover perpetrated some oif the most heinous acts of immorality witnessed in American history. Don't forget, he was in charge for fifty years! Hoover ruined lives, invaded good people's privacy, blackmailed politicians and presidents and believed that he was more important than the very Presidents of the United States he served. That Hoover outlasted eight presidents is witness to the degree to which he so diabolically gathered private and potentially damanging information on others. He made himself indispensable because of his potential danger to important people's lives. They surrendered to him.

Puppetmaster is a well told story of one human being, his influence on our nation and at the same time, the tale of a lonely, powerful, arrogant man who was so insecure in himself that he started confusing national interest with his own peculiar needs. And, he got away with it.

A very worthy read!

Daniel J, Maloney
Saint Paul, Minnesota

17 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars FASCINATING AND THOUGHT PROVOKING, April 13, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: Puppetmaster: The Secret Life of J. Edgar Hoover (Hardcover)

Any mention of J. Edgar Hoover these days conjures up images of a cross-dresser in a hotel room and secret files worthy of any blackmailer. While this new biography on Hoover does cover those rumors and hundreds more, that is not the reason to rush immediately to buy this book.
In "Puppetmaster," author Richard Hack unfolds a psychological study of a man as errie as he was fascinating, as powerful as he was corrupt, and as fundamentally patriotic as any man since George Washington.
The book is written like a novel--full of description that flows the reader through tales of gangsters, kidnappings, Communism, wiretaps, and murder. I throughly enjoyed this book, which I absolutely recommend to anyone who wants a wonderful read about a fascinating man.

16 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Where's the Beef!, July 9, 2004

By 

Edward P. Matos "edmatos52" (Laredo, Texas) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Puppetmaster: The Secret Life of J. Edgar Hoover (Hardcover)

Richard Hack's book, "Puppetmaster: The Secret Life of J. Edgar Hoover", is well documented, concise, and well presented, but I had to ask myself "where's the beef". There is simply nothing new in this biography of America's number one policeman. The book is 407 pages long. I read to page 357 and finally had to put it down for keeps - there was simply nothing new in this book to entice me to keep reading. The book is well suited for individuals that have very little to no knowledge of the life of J. Edgar Hoover.

I must admit that I was surprised by what I did not find in this new book on Hoover's life. Hoover has always been referred to as the "keeper of secrets". I would have thought that with so many reputed secrets, Richard Hack would have uncovered something new, never-presented material, but such was not the case with Hack's book. I look forward to the day when some of Hoover's well kept secrets are uncovered and brought to life in a new book. But until then there are no new discoveries to be found in "Puppetmaster: The Secret Life of J. Edgar Hoover". I would like to recommend Curt Centry's book, J. Edgar Hoover: The Man and the Secrets as an alternative to "Puppetmaster".