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J. Edgar Hoover and the “Red Summer” of 1919

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 January 2009

Mark Ellis
Mark Ellis
Affiliation:
Mark Ellis is Lecturer in American History, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow G1 1XQ, Scotland.
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Extract

J. Edgar Hoover directed the Bureau of Investigation (BI), later renamed the Federal Bureau of Investigation, from 1924 until his death in 1972. His autocratic style of management, self-mythologising habits, reactionary political opinions and accumulation of secret files on real, imagined and potential opponents have been widely documented. The views and methods he advocated have been variously attributed to values he absorbed as he grew up and to certain peculiarities of his personality. Most biographers trace his rapid rise to prominence in the BI to his aptitude for investigating alien enemies during World War I, and radicals during the subsequent Red Scare. He was centrally involved in the government's response to the alleged threat of Bolshevism in America, and, although he later denied it, he co-ordinated the notorious Palmer raids of January 1920, in which thousands of aliens were rounded up and several hundred were deported.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of American Studies , Volume 28 , Issue 1 , April 1994 , pp. 39 - 59
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1994

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References

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