G-Man: J. Edgar Hoover and the Making of the American Century

Throughout the book, Gage draws a close parallel between the events of Hoover’s life and the federal government he served for so many years. He was born and raised in Washington, DC, and his childhood coincided with its transformation from a small city, with most of its population rotating in and out with each election, into a major metropolis supporting the staff of a fast-growing federal bureaucracy. President Woodrow Wilson, who served from 1913 to 1921, had long championed a more expansive role for the federal government in advancing social progress, with brilliant rhetoricians securing popular support while competent bureaucrats tended to quotidian details. As a law student and clerk at the Library of Congress, Hoover was a small part of an early effort to create a highly professional and efficient civil service that served the public interest and not the ruling party. Hoover graduated from law school just as the United States was entering the First World War, which prompted a massive expansion in government power to sustain the fight abroad and monitor subversive elements at home. The early results of this effort were middling. Hoover first gained attention in the context of the so-called Palmer Raids, an unprecedented effort to round up foreigners suspected of radical leanings.