Richard Gid Powers – författare

A well-researched biography about the public and private life of J. Edgar Hoover—former FBI director and America’s most controversial law enforcer—that draws on previously unknown personal documents, a study of FBI files, and the presidential papers of nine administrations.Secrecy and Power is a full biography of former FBI director, covering all aspects of Hoover’s controversial career from the Red Scare following World War I to the 1960s and his personal vendettas against Martin Luther King and the civil rights and antiwar movements.

The American anticommunist movement has been viewed as a product of right-wing hysteria that deeply scarred our society and institutions. This book restores the struggle against communism to its historic place in American life. Richard Gid Powers shows that McCarthyism, red-baiting, and black-listing were only one aspect of this struggle and that the movement was in fact composed of a wide range of Americans—Jews, Protestants, blacks, Catholics, Socialists, union leaders, businessmen, and conservatives—whose ideas and political initiatives were rooted not in ignorance and fear but in real knowledge and experience of the Communist system.“Not Without Power is superbly written and richly detailed. Perceptive and thoughtful, it is an impressively thorough and valuable book.”—David J. Garrow“One of the contributions of [Powers’s] provocative narrative history is to bring to life certain segments of anti-Communist opinion that have largely been forgotten.”—Sean Wilentz, New York Times Book Review“[Powers] makes extensive use of primary sources and uncovers much that is new. He vividly recreates the complex relationships within and between several ethnic and radical communities within the United States, including their firsthand and often disillusioning experience with communism. . . . The depth and range of his work add a great deal to knowledge.”—Journal of American History“A valuable, well-executed study and summation of a vast topic, one whose various threads the author has woven into a rich tapestry.”—Richard M. Fried, Reviews in American History

From the Palmer Raids to the McCarthy era, to ABSCAM and Waco, the FBI has been enmeshed in controversy since its creation. It is also deeply woven into the fabric of our national identity and popular culture. The subject of countless movies, books, and television shows, we are fascinated by its mystique and drama. But how did the bureau that began with a modest 34 investigators in 1908 become the powerful force that it is today, employing over 12,000 agents across the country?