Enemies : A History of the FBI

"Such creatures of passion, disloyalty, and anarchy must be crushed out. The hand of our power should close over them at once". (President Woodrow Wilson, 1919).

The United States is a country founded on the ideals of democracy and freedom, yet throughout the last century it has used secret and lawless methods to destroy its enemies. The Federal Bureau of Investigation is the most powerful of these forces. Following his award-winning history of the C.I.A., "Legacy of Ashes", Tim Weiner has now written the first full history of the F.B.I.

as a secret intelligence service. Drawn entirely from firsthand materials in the F.B.I.'s own files, "Enemies" brilliantly brings to life the entire story, from the cracking of anarchist cells to the prosecution of the 'war on terror'. It is the story of America's war against spies, subversives and saboteurs - and the self-inflicted wounds American democracy suffered in battle.

Throughout the book lies the long shadow of J. Edgar Hoover, who ran the F.B.I. with an iron fist for forty-eight years.

He was not a monster, but a brilliant confidence man who ruled by fear, force, and fraud. His power shaped America; his legacy haunts it.