Book Review | “G-Man” by Beverly Gage

The acclaimed 2023 Pulitzer Prize-winning book, G-Man: J. Edgar Hoover and the Making of the American Century, stands as a seminal biography, marking the first comprehensive examination of the FBI’s inaugural director in over three decades. Authored by Beverly Gage, a distinguished professor of 20th-century American history at Yale University, this biography is the culmination of more than a decade of meticulous research and dedication. Notably, Gage was nominated by President Joe Biden in 2021 to serve on the National Humanities Council.

My personal fascination with J. Edgar Hoover emerged from early exposure to the FBI in crime dramas like “Bones” that I would watch with my dad. Over time, this interest evolved through various high school projects, including research on Mark Felt as an American upstander and the creation of a comic book (featured below) centered around Hoover and his relationship with communists.

Within the pages of G-Man, it was the exploration of Hoover’s role in the two Red Scares of the 20th century and his self-appointed role as the sole vanguard against communism that captivated me the most. This added a nuanced layer to my understanding of this influential historical figure.

We cannot know our own story without understanding [Hoover’s], in all its high aspirations and terrible cruelty, and in its many human contradictions.

Beverly Gage, “G-Man”

J. Edgar Hoover held the position of FBI director for an unprecedented forty-eight years, spanning eight different presidential administrations: four Democrats and four Republicans. Initially appointed by President Calvin Coolidge as the director of the Bureau of Investigation (the FBI’s predecessor) in 1924, Hoover professionalized the FBI, playing a pivotal role in shaping it into the formidable law enforcement agency recognized today. Under his leadership, the FBI implemented numerous progressive technological advancements for policing, including centralized fingerprint files, the FBI index, and forensic laboratories. Hoover became indelibly intertwined with the identity of the FBI.

Widely acknowledged as one of the most influential unelected officials in U.S. history, Hoover holds the unique distinction of being the sole civil servant to lie in state in the U.S. Capitol upon his death. He received numerous accolades, including being appointed Honorary Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire by King George VI in 1950, receiving the National Security Medal from President Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1955, and being honored with the State Department’s Distinguished Service Award by President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1966. Further, both President Johnson and President Richard Nixon granted him exceptions to the mandatory retirement age.

Throughout his tenure, Hoover garnered substantial public approval, lauded as a guardian of American ideals who, as a non-elected civil servant, ostensibly was unaffected by political affiliations. Nevertheless, the narrative surrounding him shifted in the years immediately preceding and following his death, as revelations of covert abuses of power surfaced. Evidence indicated routine violations of both the FBI’s internal policies and the laws the agency was expected to protect, involving illegitimate surveillance, wiretapping, and burglaries often orchestrated to fulfill Hoover’s objectives, both personal and political. This dual legacy paints Hoover as a complex and controversial figure in American history.

In G-Man, the portrayal of J. Edgar Hoover goes beyond the conventional depiction of him as a “rogue actor,” revealing the intricacies of the system that propelled him to power and situating him within the public sphere. Gage meticulously traces Hoover’s life, beginning with his formative years marked by familial tragedies, including the loss of his three-year-old sister to diphtheria, his father’s bouts of institutionalization due to depression, and the murder of his aunt. Washington D.C., Hoover’s lifelong residence, serves as a focal point in Gage’s analysis, exploring how 20th-century disruptions in the global order influenced U.S. and D.C. power structures, setting the stage for Hoover’s rise to the FBI’s directorship.

“If Hoover had decided to step down at that moment in 1959, after thirty-five years at the FBI’s helm, we might remember him differently: as a popular and well-respected government official, often cruel and controversial but a hero to more Americans than not. Instead, he stayed on through the 1960s and emerged as one of history’s great villains, perhaps the most universally reviled American political figure of the twentieth century. His abuses and excesses, from the secret manipulations of COINTELPRO to his deep-seated racism, offer a troubling case study in unaccountable government power.”

Beverly Gage, “G-Man”

Gage dedicates considerable attention to Hoover’s connection with Clyde Tolson, presenting Tolson as Hoover’s life partner. The narrative strongly suggests their romantic involvement, echoing observations made by other scholars. Gage, like her predecessors, highlights the irony in Hoover’s public adherence to conservative religious morality, juxtaposed with his intimate relationship with Tolson. Notably, Hoover’s final will bequeathed nearly all his possessions to Tolson, further underscoring the significance of their bond. This exploration adds a layer of complexity to Hoover’s personal life and challenges the public image he cultivated.

Gage humanizes Hoover, refraining from proliferating the generalizations that often abound in contemporary discussions while chronicling the numerous abuses he committed. In G-Man, Hoover returns to the deeply racist but also law-and-order-focused man that he was, with Gage’s narrative about Hoover also elucidating the bureaucratic changes that DC and the US overall underwent in the 20th century. While I wish more space was given to Hoover’s last decade, with it feeling rushed at times, I appreciate the limitations of adequately encompassing such a complex man’s entire life in a 700-page book. Overall, I would highly recommend G-Man.

“To look at him is also to look at ourselves, at what America valued and fought over during those years, what we tolerated and what we refused to see.”

Beverly Gage, “G-Man”