From the Secret Files of J. Edgar Hoover - Softcover

Theoharis, Athan

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1566630177 ISBN 13: 9781566630177

Publisher: Ivan R. Dee, 1993

Synopsis

Documents uncovered from the late FBI director's secret files reveal for the first time the shocking extent of FBI activities in collecting and using derogatory information about prominent Americans and political groups. Historian Athan Theoharis charges that Hoover was an "indirect blackmailer," exploiting the FBI's resources to serve the political interests of the White House and to advance his own political and moral agenda. None of the documents in five separate secret files was intended ever to be disclosed; Mr. Theoharis procured them after intensive research in FBI files using the Freedom of Information Act. The memoranda, letters, telephone transcriptions, and other materials printed here detail a wide range of excesses and include Hoover's providing information about political adversaries to the Johnson and Nixon White Houses; John F. Kennedy's affair with Washington gossip columnist Inga Arvad; FBI monitoring of Supreme Court clerks and staff; the tracking of Adlai Stevenson by the FBI as a homosexual; Hoover's interest in the drinking and sexual habits of congressmen; an anonymous letter attacking Martin Luther King, Jr., composed and sent to Dr. King by the FBI; and much more. Mr. Theoharis describes Hoover's ingenious Do Not File system as well as the FBI's Sex Deviate program and Obscene File.

About this title

About the Author:

Athan Theoharis is professor of history at Marquette University. His many books include The Boss, From the Secret Files of J. Edgar Hoover, Spying on Americans, Beyond the Hiss Case, Seeds of Repression, and The Yalta Myths. He lives in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

From Library Journal:

Today, years after his death, Hoover's name still sends shivers down many a spine in Washington. Theoharis, a coauthor with John Stuart Cox of a previous Hoover biography, The Boss ( LJ 6/1/88), has made skillful use of the Freedom of Information Act and public documents to compile a sketch via FBI files of Hoover's propensity for wiretapping, bugging, and developing files on public persons with or without the knowledge of his nominal boss, the U.S. Attorney General. After an insightful history of the Bureau, section one presents selected files examining the alleged and real sexual indiscretions of JFK, Robert Kennedy, Eleanor Roosevelt, and Martin Luther King Jr. Pointing out evidence against King, Theoharis notes that King tried to have Hoover fired, earning him the wrath of the FBI. Subsequent chapters examine the FBI's "investigative" techniques, its relationship with Presidents and the McCarthy committee, and the uses of public relations and the role of the director. Highly recommended for general libraries and specialized researchers. See also Curt Gentry's J. Edgar Hoover: The Man and the Secrets , reviewed in this issue, p. 110.--Ed.
-Frank Kessler, Missouri Western State Coll., St. Joseph
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Ivan R. Dee
• Publication date: 1993
• ISBN 10: 1566630177
• ISBN 13: 9781566630177
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 391