Public Enemies: America's Greatest Crime Wave and the Birth of the FBI, 1933-34
The men and women at the center of this book are American legends: John Dillinger, Bonnie and Clyde, Baby Face Nelson, Pretty Boy Floyd, the Barker gang, and "G-Man" J. Edgar Hoover have all become part of our national folklore. Bryan Burrough's Public Enemies strips away Depression-era myths to...
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The men and women at the center of this book are American legends: John Dillinger, Bonnie and Clyde, Baby Face Nelson, Pretty Boy Floyd, the Barker gang, and "G-Man" J. Edgar Hoover have all become part of our national folklore. Bryan Burrough's Public Enemies strips away Depression-era myths to reveal the even more fascinating truth about America's most spectacular crime wave and the birth of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The Vanity Fair correspondent uses newly released official files and other material to create an action-packed yet analytical narrative about the evolving warfare between lawmen and lawbreakers. Exposing the blunders and narrow misses of the tenderfoot FBI, he describes how Hoover cobbled together the Bureau's lofty public image from less-than-perfect performances. A first-rate read.
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Format: paperback
ISBN:
9780143035374 (0143035371)
Publish date: June 28th 2005
Publisher: Penguin
Pages no: 624
Edition language: English
This is one of the few non-fiction books I have read recently. Although I'm not really interested in American history, I am fascinated the time of the 30's, the great depression and the crime wave of that time, but especially I am interested in how the people dealt with such a situation that followe...
Packed full of information: what you already knew, what you only thought you knew, and what you never even suspected. A good read but dry, occasionally circular and resembling a laundry list of crimes and the many ways the early FBI made themselves look like idiots. Burrough did his research and ...
Fascinating nonfiction from the 30s.
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