‘Captivating. Nuanced, incisive, and exhaustive, this is the definitive portrait of one of 20th-century America’s most consequential figures’

– Publishers Weekly

'A monumental work about power, responsibility, and democracy itself. With deep research, an engaging voice, and penetrating insights, Beverly Gage has crafted a portrait of a man and a country in all its complexity and contradiction'

– Jon Meacham, Pulitzer Prize winner and author of American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House

‘Masterful . . . an enduring, formidable accomplishment, a monument to the power of biography’

– Washington Post

'A masterwork of biography that reveals the contradictions of the American Century through a man who embodied nearly all of them'

– Heather McGhee, author of The Sum of Us: What Racism costs everyone and how we can prosper together

'An incomparable portrait of one of the most influential and reviled figures in American history. In stunning detail . . . this extraordinary biography raises critical questions about the scope of police authority, the contours of citizenship, and the limits of democracy that strongly resonate'

– Elizabeth Hinton, author of America on Fire: The Untold History of Police Violence and Black Rebellion Since the 1960s

'Rigorously researched, vividly written, and, most remarkably, fair. It will long remain the definitive account'

– John Lewis Gaddis, author of George F. Kennan: An American Life

'Hoover, at long last, has met his match. G-Man is unflinching, incisive, and riveting, part biography, part political thriller, and much more: an essential new history of twentieth-century America'

– Jill Lepore, author of These Truths: A History of the United States

'Essential reading for those who care about government power and constraint—which should be all of us. In clear, accessible writing, Beverly Gage offers a thorough and fair-minded appraisal of the twentieth century's most powerful American, one whose legacy and shadow still hang over Washington. We should know this history, or be condemned to repeat it'

– James Comey, former director, FBI, and author of A Higher Loyalty: Truth, Lies, and Leadership

‘Crisply written, prodigiously researched, and frequently astonishing’

– New Yorker

'Revelatory… an acknowledgment of the complexities that made Hoover who he was, while charging the turbulent currents that eventually swept him aside'

– New York Times

'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'

– The Atlantic

'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'

– The Boston Globe

'Judicious… make[s] you realise…Hoover’s half-century of immense influence rested on his mastery of a very American art – the crafting of his image'

– The Nation

'Gage has done a service to history with this clear-eyed portrait of a man who was, for better and for worse, very much an American of his century'

– The American Scholar

'A welcome reevaluation of a law enforcement legend'

– Kirkus Reviews