The FBI: A Comprehensive Reference Guide

From the Palmer Raids to the McCarthy era, to ABSCAM and Waco, the FBI has been enmeshed in controversy since its creation. It is also deeply woven into the fabric of our national identity and popular culture. The subject of countless movies, books, and television shows, we are fascinated by its mystique and drama. But how did the bureau that began with a modest 34 investigators in 1908 become the powerful force that it is today, employing over 12,000 agents across the country?

Richard Powers is the author of New York Times bestseller Bewilderment; The Overstory, which won the Pulitzer Prize in Fiction; and The Echo Maker, which won the National Book Award and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize; among many other novels. Powers has received a MacArthur Fellowship, a Lannan Literary Award, the James Fenimore Cooper Prize for Historical Fiction, and is a four-time National Book Critics Circle Award finalist. He lives in the foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains.