On this episode of Our American Stories, The Pulitzer Prize winning author of G-Man: J. Edgar Hoover, Beverly Gage, shares the story of J. Edgar Hoover’s forty-eight years at the center of American law enforcement. From his early obsession with files and bureaucracy, to his role under eight presidents, Hoover shaped the FBI—and the federal government itself—across the Depression, World War II, and the Cold War.

Gage examines Hoover’s rise, his management of power, landmark cases like John Dillinger, and the contradictions that defined his legacy, including his role in civil rights investigations and the surveillance of Martin Luther King Jr. The result is a portrait of a man whose influence touched nearly every major political and cultural conflict of the twentieth century.

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