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I’ve just finished reading Tim Weiner’s most recent book, “Enemies — A History of the FBI.” It is by no means an easy read, but it seems to be a fair minded treatment of the Bureau from its inception to the present. Weiner seemed intent on supplying historical context to many of the Bureau’s actions, including those which resulted in the violations of some individuals’ civil liberties.
The book is not a biography of the FBI’s longest serving Director, John Edgar Hoover, although it would have been impossible for Weiner to recount the Bureau’s history without including the social, political, and economic philosophies of the man who shaped the FBI and led it for 40 years. The presidents whom Hoover’s FBI served under were in many instances perfectly willing to violate civil liberties to achieve their own social, political, and economic ends. So were some US Supreme Court justices with whom Hoover regularly tangled and whose decisions he on occasion ignored for what he believed, rightly or wrongly, to be the greater good of the country.
Author Tim Weiner summarized his book succinctly in an April 1 Politico op-ed post titled FBI’s Historic Tug of War – Security vs. Liberty.
The book is available on loan from the Hayden Branch library or for purchase from major booksellers.
Legacy of Ashes, also by Tim Weiner, documents the bizzare history of the CIA.
Comment by up river — April 3, 2012 @ 3:04 pm
Neither LofA nor FBI are easy books to read. They are dry, historical accounts. But they do offer some perspective that people would not otherwise have. The same is true of James Bamford’s books about NSA and Jeff Richelson’s book about the Intelligence Community.
Comment by Bill — April 3, 2012 @ 3:48 pm