Could you imagine an America where there were massive raids and arrests where people were picked up and locked up often on the flimsiest of evidence and most blatant profiling? An America where law enforcement operated on the idea that they’d detain and lock up first and worry about taking care of the pesky problem of specifying solid evidence later? An America where the FBI was run by a young man with seeming ice cubes in his veins who was unrelenting, totally businesslike in completing his “Things to Do List” which included arresting and often deporting political suspects and, not incidentally, impressing his superiors, consolidating his position and advancing his career? An America where the raids were for the most part backed by the courts and the administration controlling the White House and instigated by a politician because of something that happened to him and perpetuated as his political ambitions grew?
One upon a time that was America.
It was the America of 1919 the (in)famous Palmer raids, designed to purge the country of Communists and radicals. In “Young J. Edgar: Hoover and the Red Scare, 1919-1920,” lawyer and historian Kenneth D. Ackerman brings this often forgotten era alive — so much so that it is literally (cliche alert!) a book you can’t put down and will wind up reading into the wee hours of the morning as you rush to find his other history books. Ackerman gives the details, has the writing chops and puts it all into complete perspective — starting from the 1919 blast that destroyed the home of the politically ambitious Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer, who then decided on the raids to rid the nation of radical communism. It was a crackdown Palmer hoped would eventually help him relocate to the White House. It didn’t, he faded; his ally Hoover didn’t.
Ackerman lays it all out: the thousands of secret files assembled by the young J. Edgar Hoover on Americans, the political dynamics that led to the Palmer raid’s rise and fall, the brave attorneys (some of them such as Clarence Darrow and future Supreme Court Justices Felix Frankfurte destined for judicial greatness later on) battled the raids and existing law, and how Hoover managed to impress his superiors and survive and flourish when the raids’ era suddenly ended.
If you spot villains and heroes, its because Ackerman gives readers the evidence that backs up any characterizing, drawing on meticulous research presented in a highly lively, accessible style. But the main “star” is Hoover, an ever business-like, Eddy Haskell like young law enforcement official, putting in place and compiling revolutionary, extensive file system of secret reports and allegations on citizens that he would use until his May 1972 death, the key player in arresting and deporting radicals. A fascinating subplot is Hoover’s determination to get anarchist Emma Goldman, who was ultimately deported. He “won,” Goldman “lost,” and in the end, Hoover managed to survive the era, his career unscathed. (He literally served until the day he died.)
“Young J. Edgar” is must reading for history buffs, young people who don’t know about this often forgotten era — an era that has special relevance in the post 9/11 world and could have added relevance in years to come if there is another terrorist attack on American soil. How far can and should the government be given leeway to round up “the usual suspects” when the question is whether the usual are really usual and whether the law is being employed in a usual or unusual way?
Young Edgar works on two levels: as an A plus biography that brings Hoover to life and is required reading for anyone who has borrowed or bought books on Hoover’s career and as the chronicle of how personalities can indeed shape policies — even dangerous policies justified to protect the country that are seemingly at variance with the kind of America described in the constitution. By the time you finish Young Edgar you’ll feel like you know the young Hoover and lived through an almost unrecognizable American era.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.