2024 the best man 2023 reviews review

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Winner of the 2023 Pulitzer Prize in Biography

Winner of the 2022 National Book Critics Circle Award in Biography, the 2023 Bancroft Prize in American History and Diplomacy, and the 43rd LA Times Book Prize in Biography | Finalist for the 2023 PEN/Jacqueline Bograd Weld Award for Biography

Named a Best Book of 2022 by The Atlantic, The Washington Post and Smithsonian Magazine and a New York Times Top 100 Notable Books of 2022

“Masterful…This book is an enduring, formidable accomplishment, a monument to the power of biography [that] now becomes the definitive work”—The Washington Post

“A nuanced portrait in a league with the best of Ron Chernow and David McCullough.”—The Wall Street Journal

A major new biography of J Edgar Hoover that draws from never-before-seen sources to create a groundbreaking portrait of a colossus who dominated half a century of American history and planted the seeds for much of today's conservative political landscape.

We remember him as a bulldog—squat frame, bulging wide-set eyes, fearsome jowls—but in 1924, when he became director of the FBI, he had been the trim, dazzling wunderkind of the administrative state, buzzing with energy and big ideas for reform. He transformed a failing law-enforcement backwater, riddled with scandal, into a modern machine. He believed in the power of the federal government to do great things for the nation and its citizens. He also believed that certain people—many of them communists or racial minorities or both—did not deserve to be included in that American project. Hoover rose to power and then stayed there, decade after decade, using the tools of state to create a personal fiefdom unrivaled in U.S. history.

Beverly Gage’s monumental work explores the full sweep of Hoover’s life and career, from his birth in 1895 to a modest Washington civil-service family through his death in 1972. In her nuanced and definitive portrait, Gage shows how Hoover was more than a one-dimensional tyrant and schemer who strong-armed the rest of the country into submission. As FBI director from 1924 through his death in 1972, he was a confidant, counselor, and adversary to eight U.S. presidents, four Republicans and four Democrats. Franklin Roosevelt and Lyndon Johnson did the most to empower him, yet his closest friend among the eight was fellow anticommunist warrior Richard Nixon. Hoover was not above blackmail and intimidation, but he also embodied conservative values ranging from anticommunism to white supremacy to a crusading and politicized interpretation of Christianity. This garnered him the admiration of millions of Americans. He stayed in office for so long because many people, from the highest reaches of government down to the grassroots, wanted him there and supported what he was doing, thus creating the template that the political right has followed to transform its party.

G-Man places Hoover back where he once stood in American political history—not at the fringes, but at the center—and uses his story to explain the trajectories of governance, policing, race, ideology, political culture, and federal power as they evolved over the course of the 20th century.

Reviewer: JR11
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Brilliant Political Biography
Review: This is a masterful work of biography, political history, and human imperfection, packaged into a thoroughly researched and lengthy yet easy-to-read book. Organized in a linear fashion, the book spans four sections: Hoover’s youth, early years at the FBI, World War II and the Cold War, and finally the civil rights, Black power and anti-war protests of the 1960s and 1970s. Using her lens as a political historian, author Beverly Gage juxtaposes Hoover’s rise and dominance as FBI Director with three wars and numerous political movements that posed potential challenges to national security. One of the most interesting narrative themes that she develops is Hoover’s complicated relationships with the eight U.S. Presidents who served during his lengthy tenure. Gage deftly documents how Hoover curried favor and friendship from most of these presidents, often without regard to political party. Indeed, Hoover’s relationships with FDR and LBJ, both liberal Democratic presidents who didn’t always share Hoover’s political world-view, reveal much about how political power is acquired and to what ends it is used. Gage also does an excellent job balancing the good and bad parts of Hoover’s fifty+ year tenure as FBI Director. She certainly avoids the biographer's trap of “falling in love” with her subject, exposing his many flaws, misjudgments, and actions that violated constitutional principles. But she also shows another, more positive, side of Hoover, the tireless civil servant who worked hard to “professionalize” the FBI and establish its non-partisan, independent culture. Gage’s “Epilogue” is a remarkably well-crafted conclusion to the story, where she steps out of the biographer role and provides a more personal and contemporary assessment of the legacy of one of 20th-century America’s most influential political figures.

Reviewer: William Hiatt
Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars
Title: A Truly Repressed Individual
Review: It's a good thing this dude is dead (Hoover and Trump would have loved each other). He was totally fixated on domestic Communists throughout his almost 6-decade career. He hated the Kennedys and really didn't get too involved in criminal investigations until the tail end of Prohibition.A well written biography and very comprehensive.

Reviewer: E. Foster
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: The Man Who Stayed Too Long
Review: This is a good, well-researched book. The FBI was Hoover, and Hoover was the FBI. For many years, it was a highly respected law enforcement agency, not least because of Hoover's PR efforts. But time passed Hoover by. The FBI fell into disreputable activities in the 1960s. Hoover wasn't sympathetic to the civil rights and antiwar movements. If he had stepped down in 1960, he would be revered today. But he stayed into the 1970s, an out-of-touch, doddering old man.

Reviewer: Love Hearts
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: The Power of One man
Review: It is easy to see how this book won the Pulitzer. It is very long, very well researched and chock full of new information about J. Edgar Hoover. I cannot say enough about how well this book is written, and how the author shows the influence that Hoover had throughout his five decades in power. I highly recommend this book as it uncovers aspects of Hoover’s life that only recently come to light and shed new light on so much of who he was and what he did.

Reviewer: Elvie
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Great Book
Review: Best biography of Hoover

Reviewer: John Schaeffer
Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Review of G-Man
Review: The book provides a historical overview of the U.S. domestic history for the first half of the 20th century. However the author’s distain for Hoover comes through many times which causes me to question her objectivity.

Reviewer: Maura
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: A nuanced and groundbreaking book
Review: This book is a groundbreaking, nuanced study of a complex and pivotal historical figure. I completely disagree that the book shows a biased perspective. On the contrary, Yale prof Beverly Gage is a top-notch historian and writer who approaches her subject with the right mix of empathy and critique. She assesses Hoover as both a man and as FBI director, showing the relationship between the two. Like the best historians, she uses Hoover’s life as a prism to understand much of 20th century American history. This is a hugely significant book, as seen by all the early rave reviews by critics. My review would never do justice to this 800+ page work of scholarship which clearly required tons of research. It’s best just to read it carefully and to respect the many things the author is managing to do with the life of one person. It really got me thinking!!

Reviewer: Daniel M. Mitchell
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: An Important Update to American History
Review: Having been born in 1938, I have lived through much of the Hoover history. While I was aware of many of the events chronicled in the book, my thoughts at the time were more with work and family. It was interesting and informative to be able to fill in some gaps and see behind the curtain, as well as the underbelly, of things that I had paid only passing attention to in real time. The author’s strategy of using multiple short chapters, although unusual for long biographies, was very effective.

Reviewer: lboy
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: Happy

Reviewer: Jon
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: As above. Particularly useful for helping to comprehend American paranoia. An absolute steal for 99 pence offer that you sometimes find on Amazon

Reviewer: Jan Boman
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: En genomgripande skildring av Herbert Hoovers liv ut alla aspekter. En biografi när den är som allra bäst. Utsedd till en av årets tio bästa böcker av Washington Post.

Reviewer: Norman Abjorensen
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: This is biography at its very best. Hoover is key to an understanding of the social and political trajectory of America in the 20th century as well as a salutary lesson in the dangers of unfettered power.

Reviewer: Quebec Customer
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: I am fairly choosey with my books. I have read a few other books about Hoover and his period, but this was the most detailed, informed, and balanced book to-date. I felt that I had not only a very good understanding of Hoover as a person, but also his times. I strongly recommend this book.