Crisply written, prodigiously researched, and frequently astonishing ... Gage certainly does not deny Hoover’s talent and taste for...dark arts, but she wants to emphasize a simpler explanation, one less flattering to America’s self-regard. For a very long time, most Americans admired Hoover ... There have been other big, ambitious biographies of Hoover, but G-Man is the first in nearly three decades. One advantage to writing about him now is that, in the realm of national security, revelations burble up over time, files get declassified, foia requests haul out unexpected specimens in their nets. But some of Gage’s freshest takes concern Hoover’s upbringing in a respectably middle-class but emotionally beleaguered family, and the formation of his racial attitudes in a college fraternity with a sentimental attachment to the Jim Crow South. Many of the book’s other sharp assessments come not from secret documents but from generally available historical sources that the author has read with close attention or particular nuance.
... revelatory ... This book doesn’t rescue Hoover’s reputation but instead complicates it, deepening our understanding of him and, by extension, the country he served ... The myth of American exceptionalism relegated him to caricature, a supervillain who managed to cling to power only through devious means. But as G-Man vividly shows, Hoover was an exceedingly popular figure for much of his career ... part of what makes G-Man such a fascinating book is how much attention Gage pays to Hoover’s other side — that of the consummate bureaucrat who was determined to modernize and professionalize the F.B.I. As such, despite his obsession with secrecy, he left behind an enormous paper trail. “G-Man is the first major biography of Hoover in nearly three decades, and the first to make ample use of records that have become available in the intervening years, including documents from a Cold War decryption project known as Venona ... This is a humanizing biography, but I wouldn’t call it a sympathetic one — as Gage shows, Hoover accrued too much power and racked up too many abuses for him to be worthy of that. What she provides instead is an acknowledgment of the complexities that made Hoover who he was, while also charting the turbulent currents that eventually swept him aside.
Masterful ... Hoover’s story illustrates the unique power of biography to enter the life of another human being. The genre can provoke a rare response: It can persuade one to change one’s mind. This magical leap can happen when a good biographer is able to seduce the reader into understanding another soul. G-Man is Gage’s first biography, and she turns out to be a marvelous biographer ... After reading Gage, I have changed my mind about Hoover ... Gage’s biography now becomes the definitive work, not only because it is deeply biographical about the man but also because the author was able to tap into such previously classified sources as the records of Operation Solo ... This new material is simply stunning, and Gage uses it to write a highly nuanced — sometimes even sympathetic — account of the man.
Gage’s new biography bats down any caricatures a reader might bring to it ... G-Man, the product of Gage’s immersion in FBI archives and other sources, is a tome, more than 700 pages of text in small print, but one that is, thankfully, very readable. Rather than piling on unnecessary detail, Gage...supplies just enough context for understanding the enormous changes in American society and politics during Hoover’s long tenure ... Gage’s analysis is stuffed with many surprises ... G-Man is more about Hoover the institution-builder than the private man — not surprising, given his workaholic habits and closeted homosexuality. Gage’s triumph is her deft navigation through Hoover’s 'deep state,' while reminding us of the abuse of power that remains his enduring legacy.
... masterful ... Gage carefully chronicles all of the major abuses committed by his FBI. She also shows that the prevailing image of Hoover as a 'one-dimensional tyrant and backroom schemer who strong-armed the rest of the country into submission' is a distortion. Hoover emerges instead as a still-flawed figure, yet more team player than solo villain ... Gage’s penetrating account of Hoover’s career, especially his many long-eclipsed triumphs, offers a well-timed and sobering perspective as yet another institution in our fractured country struggles to maintain trust.
Absorbing detail and lapidary prose ... a convincing and significant work ... Years of digging through all the relevant archives... enable her to write with unparalleled authority and confidence about a man and an agency now more despised than understood ... In over 800 pages of text, G-Man seldom loses narrative drive or offers less than a persuasive analysis of her subject’s deeds or motivations.
Captivating ... Gage persuasively explains how Hoover went from a nationally popular figure to becoming 'a standard-bearer less for the unbounded promise of federal power than for its dangers.' Nuanced, incisive, and exhaustive, this is the definitive portrait of one of 20th-century America’s most consequential figures.
