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rational security, chatter, law fair no bull, and the aftermath.

He also has his own segregationist views that come from his early years in many ways.

But he often describes the reason that he's going after the civil rights movement,

racial minorities as being because they might be infiltrated by communists.

And so you can see a whole range of subjects and ideas really being infused into this very broad cultural and social and political crusade that he takes on in addition to these kind of narrower national security questions.

I'm Jack Goldsmith and this is the LawFair podcast, December 6, 2022.

J. Edgar Hoover served as director of the federal Bureau of Investigation for 48 years from 1924 until 1972.

Since his death, Hoover has become one of the most reviled figures in American history due to FBI operations under his leadership to spy on Americans, including government officials in order to manipulate democratic politics.

To discuss Hoover's extraordinary role in American politics in the 20th century and the continuing influence of his legacy today,

I sat down with Yale University History Professor Beverly Gage, who is the author of a new biography of Hoover called G-Man, J. Edgar Hoover and the Making of the American Century.

She and I discussed why Hoover's place in American history is much more complex than conventional wisdom suggests.

Hoover as a master bureaucrat who managed the press, Hollywood, and senior government officials to maintain enormous popularity throughout his reign as FBI director.

How Hoover the fierce anti-communist was the key to the elimination of McCarthyism in the 1950s and much, much more.

It's the LawFair podcast, December 6, J. Edgar Hoover and the Making of the American Century.

Beverly Gage, congratulations on your monumental and definitive biography of Hoover.

I thought I knew a lot about the man in his institution, but I learned a lot of new things including many surprising things in just about every one of your 58 chapters.

Thanks so much for reading all 58 chapters, Jack.

...