Official and Confidential: The Secret Life of J. Edgar Hoover

by Anthony Summers

Overview

A New York Times–bestselling author’s revealing, “important” biography of the longtime FBI director (The Philadelphia Inquirer).
 
No one exemplified paranoia and secrecy at the heart of American power better than J. Edgar Hoover, the original director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. For this consummate biography, renowned investigative journalist Anthony Summers interviewed more than eight hundred witnesses and pored through thousands of documents to get at the truth about the man who headed the FBI for fifty years, persecuted political enemies, blackmailed politicians, and lived his own surprising secret life. Ultimately, Summers paints a portrait of a fatally flawed individual who should never have held such power, and for so long.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781480435209
Publisher:	Open Road Integrated Media, Inc.
Publication date:	06/18/2013
Pages:	628
Sales rank:	704,346
Product dimensions:	5.60(w) x 8.30(h) x 1.60(d)

About the Author

Anthony Summers is the bestselling author of ten works of nonfiction. His investigative books include Not in Your Lifetime, the critically acclaimed account of the assassination of John F. Kennedy; Official and Confidential: The Secret Life of J. Edgar Hoover; Goddess, a biography of Marilyn Monroe; and most recently The Eleventh Day, on the 9/11 attacks—a finalist for the 2012 Pulitzer Prize for History.

Editorial Reviews

"I read Official and Confidential with mounting horror, fascination, revulsion . . . Enthralling.” —Paul Theroux
 
“An important book that should give us all pause, especially policy makers.” —The Philadelphia Inquirer
 
“Summers’ book is not just a history of a single hero-sized hypocrite, it is a history of a vast national delusion.” —The Spectator 

From the Publisher

Summers's expose throws light on Hoover's relentless corruption and other skeletons in his closet. Photos. (May)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly