The Burglary: The Discovery of J. Edgar Hoover's Secret FBI

by Betty Medsger

The never-before-told complete story of the history-changing break-in at the FBI office in Media, Pennsylvania, by a group of unlikely activists -- quiet, ordinary, hardworking Americans -- that exposed the shocking truth and confirmed what some had long suspected: that J. Edgar Hoover was operating, in violation of the U.S. Constitution, his own shadow Bureau of Investigation.

• ISBN10: 141046959X
• ISBN13: 9781410469595
• Publish Date: 9 July 2014
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Out of Print: 9 July 2021
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Thorndike Press
• Edition: Large type / large print edition
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 927
• Language: English

Reviews

[jamiereadthis]

Wrote a review, lost it, and weeks later still haven’t mustered the energy to compose it again. So, in short:

– Great, pivotal, necessary story, but also hampered somewhat by the repetitive style in which Medsger wrote it.
– Absolutely benefitted from reading All The President’s Men first, because it not only gave me a reference point for the Washington Post narrative but it had many of the players in common (including Mark Felt, who is here as Mark Felt, not Deep Throat).
– It’s why I have, up to this point, sworn off biographies of Hoover. Haven’t been ready for the full picture of his 40-year reign as megalomaniacal dictator.
– Which, you have to admit, is pretty impressive to pull off in a democratic government. No wonder we’re still reeling from the effects of it decades later.

From here, onwards, upwards (or is that downwards?) to read Daniel Ellsberg on the Pentagon Papers.

“The spying constituted harassment, invasion of privacy, and violation of the right to dissent, but it had little or no connection to effective law enforcement or intelligence gathering— the important and only official missions of the FBI. [Whatever the FBI was doing as it invaded lives,] it neither safeguarded civil liberties or protected Americans from violence.”