Generations after he unleashed federal law enforcement to destroy the lives of people who disagreed with him, J. Edgar Hoover has finally met his match.
Beverly Gage, an author and Yale professor, has written the definitive biography of the man who built the modern FBI and oversaw its notorious COINTELPRO chapter of repression of dissidents. Gage spent 10 years on the project, poring through previously unexplored documents and bringing a clear-headed perspective to a nuanced story about not just an essential figure in American history but “power, responsibility, and democracy itself” in the words of author Jon Meacham.
Gage’s book is called G‑Man: J. Edgar Hoover and the Making of the American Century. Penguin Random House releases it Nov. 22. Gage previewed the book Thursday and discussed the journey that led to it in a conversation with host Kica Matos on WNHH FM’s “Kica’s Corner.”
“Read this book!” Matos urged all her listeners, especially social-justice advocates.
Click on the video to watch the interview.
And click on the above video to watch a conversation on WNHH FM’s “Dateline New Haven” with journalist Tzippy Shmilovitz about the recent Israeli elections, which is set to produce the most extremist right-wing government in the nation’s history. Shmilovitz, who lives in New Haven, is the American correspondent for Israeli’s largest-circulation newspaper, Yediot Aharanot. She called the election of the most extreme right-wing government in Israeli history an “inevitable” endpoint of a trajectory launched by the 1995 assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and the subsequent failure of the left to advance an alternative message of peaceful coexistence with Palestinians.
Historical persons especially ones as important as J. Edgar need to be continually studied because of the amount of information uncovered. The founders and Lincoln are still being researched, we are just starting to uncover in dig deep into Franklin Roosevelt's life and administration. Professor Gage explains that her research was done with out editorial's or bias. The interviewer of course went straight to the J. Edgar “Bad Man” I found the part of the interview had to do with creation of the FBI as a response to a threat, and expanded with increase of inter state bank robberies. Many agencies, laws and 'Acts” are created at a time of national crisis and as we've seen over time ardent opponents of learn not only accept it but find ways to use it for their own gains. I find it ironic that while law enforcement is associated with the “Right Wing” over the last six years The FBI has been given not only been given a pass and excused for political actions that even old J. Edgar would have not crossed the line on. In the winter and spring of 2021 The FBI posted billboards to contact them if you have information on residents/citizens who may have been in Washington D.C on or around January 6th, yes The times they have changed.