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Enemies: A History of the FBI

by Tim Weiner (Goodreads Author)

3.86 of 5 stars 3.86 · rating details · 629 ratings · 147 reviews

NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY
The Washington Post • New York Daily News • Slate

“Fast-paced, fair-minded, and fascinating, Tim Weiner’s Enemies turns the long history of the FBI into a story that is as compelling, and important, as today’s headlines.”—Jeffrey Toobin, author of The Oath

NATIONAL BESTSELLER

Enemies is the first definitive history of the FBI’s secret...more

Hardcover, 537 pages

Published February 14th 2012 by Random House (first published January 24th 2012)

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Apr 23, 2012 Albert rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction, history, first-reads, crime

As I approach the midway point of Enemies: A History of the FBI I must confess I'm surprised at how easy the book has been to read. Being that J. Edgar Hoover was synonymous with the FBI, I'm not surprised to find that so far it is basically about the man who singlehandedly built the FBI to what it is today. Even knowing what I did about how Hoover used, and abused his powers to fight communism, I have still been shocked at how far he actually went to increase and retain the power that he welded...more

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Aug 15, 2012 Jason rated it 5 of 5 stars

Reading this book i realized a couple things i didn't know before. One, that J. Edgar Hoover was probably the most powerful man in American history, only because of the amount of sway that he had on just about anyone. And two, that the FBI is this weird mix of 1984 and the Wizard of Oz, where you have this agency that is presumably watching you all the time but it does have a head; and that head, until his death, was J. Edgar.

I really love the fantastical element of his character. The daunting s...more

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May 15, 2013 Horza added it

If you liked Legacy of Ashes, you'll like Enemies. The converse also applies; Weiner retains the fast-paced, journalistic style of Legacy - tantalising links are left hanging and background is left as exercise for the reader.

Like his biography of the Agency this effort starts to fade as it heads closer to the present, deprived of declassified documents and on-the-record testimony it starts to read as a recap of recent NYT/WaPo exposes and the insights become less and less penetrating - one wonde...more

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May 10, 2013 Chris rated it 4 of 5 stars

One of the greatest take-aways from this book is how we as Americans have failed in our responses to dissent. Rather than appreciating that we have the freedom of dissent, we've in all cases attempted to crush it. Attempting to silence one's enemies almost always backfires. J. Edgar Hoover's obsession with stamping out Communism, a passion he shared with several presidents, was a colossal waste of resources and lives, and created an atmosphere of distrust and a lack of faith in a nation that was...more

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Mar 28, 2013 Joseph Ribera rated it 5 of 5 stars

The FBI celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2008. The role of our nation's enforcement arm of the Department of Justice evolved over the years from crime fighting to combating terrorism.

The author relates with authority and clarity, that the aura of infallibility and omnipotence associated with this institution is undeserved. That since its inception this institution has ignored the civil rights granted by the US constitution and has arrogantly trampled on the rights of American citizens though...more

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Feb 20, 2013 Owen rated it 3 of 5 stars

Anyone who wants to understand the FBI should read this book. There have been more popular books- and movies- recently, but if you want to understand the true story and not baseless speculation, this book is the place to go- for instance, Mr. Weiner is no Hoover apologist, but after an exhaustive review of the evidence, he concludes that it is not likely that Hoover spent his off hours dressed in drag and sleeping with men. In fact, it appears that Hoover may not have had any relationships of an...more

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Oct 08, 2012 Helaine rated it 4 of 5 stars

This is not a pretty picture of the FBI. In fact, when you finish it, you wonder why we should be supporting this institution with our tax dollars. This book focuses on the FBI's role in terrorist activity prevention and investigation so I hope that the history of the FBI with regard to good old crime is better. Some info that I didn't know: The FBI for most of its existence didn't even have a viable information system to retrieve all the information it obtained, legally and otherwise. We heard...more

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Aug 21, 2012 Richard Fox rated it 4 of 5 stars

Most of the reviews are quite good at Describing the main thrust of the book. So, I will be content to render my general opinion. Having also read Time Weiner's previous History of the CIA, I was struck by the thoroughness of the FBI's counterespionage efforts - many of which were illegal or of questionable legality - compared with the CIA's woeful record. Perhaps the most impressive realization I came away with was how, in this age of ?the War on Terror, so many of the Strategies and tactics pi...more

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Jun 03, 2012 Sam Bruskin rated it 5 of 5 stars

This thing blazes along, (the Fire I smelt smoldering in the Smoke of Leo daCappo's JEH {or is it smoke that smolders?}); even more furiously than TW's CIA Legacy. It's really well-done History, with lots of trails to follow. Enormously useful for researching my own project, where i set the early '50's as the centerpiece, and has had me revise just who is the main character in a period where everyone seems to be: The Wild West of the Cold War, with mushroom clouds making bigger and bigger booms...more This thing blazes along, (the Fire I smelt smoldering in the Smoke of Leo daCappo's JEH {or is it smoke that smolders?}); even more furiously than TW's CIA Legacy. It's really well-done History, with lots of trails to follow. Enormously useful for researching my own project, where i set the early '50's as the centerpiece, and has had me revise just who is the main character in a period where everyone seems to be: The Wild West of the Cold War, with mushroom clouds making bigger and bigger booms.

Einstein monk-like (sort of) supposedly tickling the Unified Field Theory and dashing off a letter now and then (what was he really working on) , the Oppenheimers, the Rosenbergs, may I suggest Robert Cuver's Public Burning (fiction), the Wild Bills (Wild Wild Bill Donovan and Mild Wild Bill Stephenson, the British Puppetmaster, that you behind the curtain, Georgie?), The Dulles Boys, one splits the pie, the other choosing thje piece, Ike's anomolous Prognostication, his unlovely Nixon creature (Alberich? Gollum? he really named him gollum! dwarfing the medieval Frankenstein); Those Darling Katzenjammer Kennedy Kids tumbling under Daddy's partner's desk, maybe spinning a few Cutty Sark Bottles)[may i --well i will, suggest another links? but i am sure all these are pretty obvious, All the Shah's Men: An American Coup and the Roots of Middle East Terror,] the Most Dignified Statesman Mossadegh, Jeez, what could be more exciting... i even see The Chums of Chance drfting in and out of time in their Dirigible (more obscure perhaps, Against The Day, TP).
well its all here double toiling and tripley troubling. And Weiner sets a lively pace and keeps it marching.
And By way of my contributing for your delectation a couple British blokes you all may not know, of the novelistic breed to the
Eye of newt, and toe of frog, ... and tongue of dog, an Adder's fork,
might be
Anthony Price with some 20 Cold War historical baubles or rather Faberge easter eggs, a fine example being "Tomorrow's Ghost", which circle around an Oxford Historian who is the go-to guy for the fictional MI-6, in stories which really are history puzzles and good ones.
The other I would introduce deserves far more attention and admiration than he has been accorded, he might be the
Lizard's leg, and owlet's wing,—
For a charm of powerful trouble,
Like a hell-broth boil and bubble.
to keep the music going just a little too long on this silly Shakespearean Rag, is
James T. Farrell NOT the Studs Lonigan JT Farrel, but a Brit with 3 novels i know and love:
The Singapore Grip (set at the Japanese seige of Singapore early in WW2 where they invade by taking bicycles down the malaysian peninsula to surprise and utterly destroy the british force, "The Seige of Krishnapur" based on the 1857 Sepoy successful Rebellion against the British in Meerut, India; and if you cannot imagine an hilarious mutiny and massacre that is because it requires this brilliant writer to write it. His other is "Troubles", about the time of Troubles in Ireland after the Easter Uprising.
I have mixed it up a bit here, i hope not too many mind my wayward conceits, i mean them only in the spirit of good reading.(less)

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Feb 20, 2012 Converse rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: espionage, non-fiction, history, politics

I read the kindle editon of this book.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) was founded by President Theodore Roosevelt in the early years of the twentieth century, though it didn't get its current name until the Presidency of his cousin Franklin Delano Rooosevelt (FDR). From the 1920s until his death in the early 1970s, it was led by J. Edgar Hoover.

Weiner's history of the FBI focuses on its role in countering espionage, subversion, and terrorism (or what its leaders deemed to fall into the...more I read the kindle editon of this book.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) was founded by President Theodore Roosevelt in the early years of the twentieth century, though it didn't get its current name until the Presidency of his cousin Franklin Delano Rooosevelt (FDR). From the 1920s until his death in the early 1970s, it was led by J. Edgar Hoover.

Weiner's history of the FBI focuses on its role in countering espionage, subversion, and terrorism (or what its leaders deemed to fall into these categories). Very little attention is devoted to organized crime or other more ordinary criminal activities.

J. Edgar Hoover rose to prominence for his role in deporting various sorts of leftists in the immediate aftermath of the First World War. One lesson Hoover learned from this experience was to avoid court cases and focus on gathering intelligence and harassing his enemies with extra-legal means, such as causing conflict within the ranks.

Under FDR, Hoover gained de facto if illegal freedom to use wire taps and burglarize left-wing and right-wing organizations deemed subversive (Hoover was more enthusiastic about moving against the left-wing groups) and the diplomatic posts of other nations.

Hoover had a negative attitude towards the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s. Weiner argues that although this was partly due to Hoover's 1895 birth and residence in Washington D. C., a southern city in a social sense, it was mainly because one of Martin Luther King's main associates had been a Communist Party member. President Lyndon Baines Johnson did succeed in cajoling Hoover into successfully using against the Klan the same techniques of wiretapping, recruting informant, and sowing conflict that the FBI had used against the Communist Party.

The FBI was less successful in persuing the Weather Underground and Puerto Ricans using terrorism in an attempt to gain independence. Starting in the late 1960s, Hoover became less amenable to White House pressure to use his favorite techniques against political enemies of the President, causing Richard Nixon no end of consternation. The FBI in general and Mark Felt in particular was the major media source on the Watergate scandal. The repercussions of Watergate, including the exposure of the illegal means used by the FBI, resulted in a considerable reduction in counterintelligence and counter-terrorism operations, a change which persisted into the 1990s.

From the mid-1970s until about 2001, the FBI and American intelligence organizations in general suffered from a number of undiscovered double agents in their midst. Aside from the Soviet Union and its Russian successor, the Chinese and the Cubans appear to have run successful operations against the United States. FBI leadership was uneven during this period, with a low point under director Sessions. Louis Freeh, the director during most of the Clinton administration, had a poor relationship with the White House during most of this period, reaching a low point during the Monica Lewinsky episode and subsequent impeachment trial.

During the 1990s and even after the attacks of September 11, 2001, the FBI was hampered by poor organization and bad computer systems in using the knowledge it collectively held. The increase in information recieved by the FBI,from such electronic survelliance organizations such as the National Security Agency as well as the Central Intelligence Agency, in some ways made things worse by providing many more false leads. At the same time there was conflict within the government, and later outside of government after the news leaked, about some of the means by which information was collected, including electronic survillance without court warrant, and torture. The FBI, CIA, and the military did improve in their identification and killing of terrorists, though contraversy about the means used continues.(less)

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Mar 14, 2013 Matthew Griffiths rated it 4 of 5 stars

Just like Legacy of Ashes, the book by the same author which explored the history of the CIA this is an enthralling account of another actor in the battle to protect America. Like its counterpart this book was similarly well written and flowed quite naturally. This book didn't benefit from such a clear narrative of history driven style like its counterpart but I imagine a large part of the reason for this is that Enemies covers a period of time almost double that discussed in Legacy of Ashes.

The...more

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May 24, 2012 Nancy Oakes rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: history-usa, nonfiction, espionage

as usual, this is a short review; for a somewhat longer post click here.

My many thanks to Random House for sending me a copy of this book. It is an eye-opening, well-researched and intelligently-constructed history of the FBI in its role as a "secret intelligence service." The book examines how the Bureau has long been operating outside of the rule of law -- "the foundation on which America was built", and offers its readers a look at the ongoing struggle between national security and civil libe...more

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Jun 07, 2012 Steve Smits rated it 4 of 5 stars

Our republic has faced external and internal threats since nearly its beginning. A critical challenge for our system of government in dealing with these real or perceived threats is whether we can address them while maintaining the individual liberties guaranteed by the constitution -- liberties which without question impede the range of responses government may use to respond.

Sadly, we fail time after time. From the Alien and Seditions laws of the 1790's to imprisonment of dissenters in WWI and...more Our republic has faced external and internal threats since nearly its beginning. A critical challenge for our system of government in dealing with these real or perceived threats is whether we can address them while maintaining the individual liberties guaranteed by the constitution -- liberties which without question impede the range of responses government may use to respond.

Sadly, we fail time after time. From the Alien and Seditions laws of the 1790's to imprisonment of dissenters in WWI and internment of Japanese-Americans in WWII to today's electronic invasions of privacy in the war on terror, we have been largely incapable of holding true to our ideals.

Nowhere is this shown more clearly than in the history of the FBI. Tim Weiner's incredibly well-researched book describes the abuses of the FBI in its efforts to deal with foreign and domestic enemies. While the notion of FBI misdeeds is familiar to us, the details are shocking. Warrantless wiretaps, bugging, break-ins were not the actions of rogue agents, they were standard practices and pervasive in use from the begining of the agency one hundred years ago.

The willingness to use such techniques and their extent is related to J. Edgar Hoover's obsession with communist and other left wing parties, but to focus only on him is to miss a major theme of Weiner's story. Many, many political leaders were aware of Hoover's approach and sanctioned it openly or tacitly. Surely the powerful political influence developed by Hoover over his long tenure inhibited presidents and attorneys general from taking the principled position they should have, and admittedly some of the enemies were indeed threats, but those are lame excuses in view of their oaths to uphold the constitution. (One of the few admirable incidents was the resistance of the current director, Robert Mueller, and then attorney general Ashcroft to Bush's/Cheney's efforts to grossly violate the privacy of individual Americans under the Patriot Act's electronic surveillance provisions.)

As unsettling as presidents' toleration of Hoover's illegalities is the fact that some, especially Johnson and Nixon, seemed to relish hearing the "dirt" Hoover collected on their political opponents and others.

The consequences of this long era of misconduct are reverbating today. After the Watergate episode in which the FBI, below the level of director L. Patrick Gray, resisted the White House effort to cover up the break-in, the agency went through a series of ineffective directors with the exception of Mueller who seems to have scruples. The insularity and bureaucratic rivalry with other intelligence agencies that was so important to Hoover, seems to have persisted until the pre-September 11 years when the lack of sharing of intelligence blinded us to the major danger of radical Islamists. One hopes that this shortsightness is very much diminished now.

Some of the threats over time were real, e.g. Soviet espionage efforts to get nuclear secrets. Some were important, e.g. the violent actions of the KKK against civil rights activists in the 1960's. Other threats were more imagined, e.g. the communist party USA or thousands of Japanese-Americans in 1942. Whether real or imagined, the disturbing message of Weiner's history is that our government does not seem able to resist resorting to extreme tactics that clearly violate the constitution. Adhering to the safeguards contained in the constitution would and do inhibit the effectivness of law enforcement and counter espionage actions, but that is the price we must pay if we are to preserve on a larger scale our unique and precious civil liberties.(less)

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Mar 08, 2012 David rated it 3 of 5 stars

Dryly factual. Five stars for the overwhelmingly interesting facts, one star for the dry writing style which rarely goes into sufficient detail in its rush to recount large events often taking up large swaths of time. Of course, the detail I'm looking for would at least triple the length of the book, so you may disagree. The writing style would certainly make me hesitant to read three times the pages.

This book should be read by all Americans despite the intelligence-report style of writing. This...more

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Feb 16, 2013 Jb rated it 5 of 5 stars

I give Five Stars to books that I find difficult to lay down. This is one. Mostly it’s about the imperious reign of long-time director J. Edgar Hoover, his “files not to be filed,” his nose-thumbing of presidents, etc. Under him, the FBI was a virtual Frankenstein, shaping government policies and strategies on everything from national security to civil rights. Suspicions of disloyalty and homosexuality destroyed careers; “liberals,” blacks and Jews endured vendettas. Some presidents got along wi...more

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Oct 04, 2012 Kailey Peterson rated it 1 of 5 stars

The FBI was created by President Theodore Roosevelt in June of 1908. He created it with the help of J. Edgar Hoover. They had created the FBI because they had become enemies with Germany, and they needed some sort of group to catch the aliens, also known as Germans, to put them in imprisonment and question them.

Hoover was just an average man before the FBI, but years later he started to become a cruel man. The theme of the story is that not all people turn out who they are thought to be. Weiner...more

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Mar 07, 2012 Ben rated it 3 of 5 stars

In many ways this is an impressive book, covering over 100 years of history that touches on basically almost every major domestic occurrence of violence and most foreign ones too. What holds me back from more stars is it just wasn't as good as Legacy of Ashes. I think part of that reflects the fact that the FBI is just more complicated. It's been around for longer and had to deal with both domestic and foreign issues simultaneously. But I think the biggest difficulty with this one compared to Le...more

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Jan 17, 2013 Heikki rated it 4 of 5 stars

[Note - I read the translated Finnish version of the book, but the translator, Jyri Raivio, did excellent work with this book]

The FBI is an iconic organization; even if it is an American feature, it is recognized and remembered around the world. When I grabbed this book, I expected to learn many details of the crime-busting the FBI has done, you know, the Dillingers and the Bonnies & Clydes, and how the Mafia was tackled.

There is some of that in this book. But much, much more this book focus...more [Note - I read the translated Finnish version of the book, but the translator, Jyri Raivio, did excellent work with this book]

The FBI is an iconic organization; even if it is an American feature, it is recognized and remembered around the world. When I grabbed this book, I expected to learn many details of the crime-busting the FBI has done, you know, the Dillingers and the Bonnies & Clydes, and how the Mafia was tackled.

There is some of that in this book. But much, much more this book focuses on the blatant civil rights abuses the FBI has committed all through its existence.

From the very beginning the FBI was designed to be the cutting edge of the law, the final frontier that would maintain peace in the country and protect the American citizen from the threat of communism and organized crime. Well, if the aim was good, the methods used to achieve that were definitely outside the tool box allowed by the law.

I was very surprised to see how J. Edgar Hoover was able to keep his outfit untouchable by such boring people as a succession of Attorney Generals. Some of these condoned his wholly and totally unconstitutional actions, and some just feared him and let him keep attacking the civil rights of the people he deemed to be threats to society. This bunch of people was so heterogeneous that it was really stretching my imagination even to understand who were being targeted by Hoover's FBI.

Then during WW2, the FBI enlarged its operations way beyond its intended purpose and installed agents everywhere. Some of these actually managed to do useful work, but the quality of the agents sent out was not very high; consequently the results were more often negligible. If you want to compare the FBI's operations to those of the CIA, see "Spycraft" by Wallace and Melton. The juxtaposition of FBI and CIA is actually interesting, especially since neither of them have managed to sit comfortably within the framework of the law.

The rest of the book is pretty much taken up by the fight against global terrorism, and even in that part of the book, incompetence and turf wars are much more on the scene than successful operations. Considering the amount of manpower and the sheer torrent of dollars issued to the FBI, I had to collect my eyebrows from my neck many times. Single agents, hard-working, loyal, and true to the law, have produced good results, but bungling chiefs and the incessant inter-departmental squibbling have wasted much of the benefits.

Yet to me, the biggest worry this book raises is this:

I just reviewed "Wiseguy" by Nicholas Pileggi, and was appalled by the way any regular citizen can become a target for the Mafia. The society of gangsters has taken on the society of citizens and has become superior to it, rendering judges and politicians corrupt, and financing their way out of any legal consequences.

And now, when I read this book, I saw how the one of the arms of the establishment have attacked the society of citizens from the other direction, stripping ordinary citizens of even basic civil rights based on hearsay and sometimes not even that. It is terrible to read of how the mere hunch of associating with Communists was enough to land one in jail and in serial court cases which were unwinnable, because the FBI had no proof, and the citizen was not told why he was being accused and of what.

As a final comment, I have to say this: I see the freedom so much touted by so many Americans in grave jeopardy from many directions. Maybe it would be good to finally issue a charter for the FBI and see to it that they stick to it.(less)

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Jul 15, 2012 Kerry Sullivan rated it 4 of 5 stars

Excellent read. Scary to learn how consistently through its history the FBI has ignored the routine illegality of its methods. They knew info obtained illegally would be inadmissible in court, but they didn't care. The main thing was to gather the information to prevent the evil doers of the day communists for the first sixty years, Muslim extremists more recently) from doing evil. Lots of heroic, entertaining, and disconcerting escapades--but you'll get mad all over again reading about how our...more

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Jun 03, 2012 Zohar - ManOfLaBook.com rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2012

Enemies: A History of the FBI by Tim Weiner is a non-fiction book which tells of the 100 year history of the famous organization. Mr. Weiner is a Pulitzer Prize winning author and a former New York Times reporter who wrote largely about American security.

The book is divided into four parts: Spies and Saboteurs, World War, Cold War and War on Terror. Each part spotlights on the main focus of the FBI during those times from Communism, to spies to political espionage and terrori...more

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Aug 13, 2012 Steve rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction

This was a great book, a very easy to read history of the FBI from it's inception as an investigative force in the Department of Justice to today. The history of the FBI has been and will continue to be a struggle between security and civil rights. Dominated by a single man hunting for subversives for so many years (J. Edgar Hoover) the FBI floundered after he passed away and Watergate exposed many FBI tactics and seems to have found a new lease on life back in counterterrorism. The FBI has also...more

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May 09, 2012 Raghu rated it 4 of 5 stars

Tim Weiner's book is a comprehensive history of the FBI from its inception till today. As I finished reading it, the feeling was one of admiration for the author's exhaustive research, a real understanding of what the FBI is all about and disbelief and fear at all that transpires in our country in the name of national security and politics. Contrary to most of our understanding, the FBI is not a police force but a secretive intelligence organization. The book shows how over the years, especially...more Tim Weiner's book is a comprehensive history of the FBI from its inception till today. As I finished reading it, the feeling was one of admiration for the author's exhaustive research, a real understanding of what the FBI is all about and disbelief and fear at all that transpires in our country in the name of national security and politics. Contrary to most of our understanding, the FBI is not a police force but a secretive intelligence organization. The book shows how over the years, especially during the long reign of 50 years by J.Edgar Hoover at the helm, the FBI has been used by Presidents in their political warfare and how the organization has mostly operated outside the law with the connivance of Presidents like FDR, Johnson, Nixon, Reagan and George.W.Bush. It has fought against communists, civil rights activists, terrorists, spies, opponents of incumbent presidents and so on.

Much of the book is about J.Edgar Hoover as he ruled over the FBI as head for fifty years till death in 1972. The author summarizes Hoover as follows: " ...born in the 19th century segregated city of DC, in his world, blacks knew their place: they were servants, valets and shoeshine boys. He presided over an Anglo-Saxon America and he aimed to preserve and defend it... He hated liberalism, blacks, Jews - he had a long list of hates...he connected communism with homosexuality and believed that homosexuals were susceptible to foreign intelligence services..."
The crusade that Hoover carried on against the so-called infiltration of communists in government has marked similarities with the way we have seen the various administrations since 2001 have carried on in the 'war on terror'. In Hoover's time, the FBI ran background checks on more than two million government employees, launch deep investigations into the personal lives and political beliefs of 14000 of them. At the end, they would find no Soviet spies in the govt! Like now, the FBI then employed wiretapping without authorization and searches without warrants.

The section on the US intelligence helping carry out the assassination of Trujillo, the dcitator of the Dominican Republic shows many of the US senators and US embassy staff in that country receiving money and sexual services in return for doing the dictator's bidding. It is sickening to read about the level of corruption and brings to mind the current (2012) crisis with the US secret service being involved with prostitution in Colombia during President Obama's visit.

The most glaring feature that stands out from the book is the repeated violation of law by many Presidents from FDR to George.W.Bush in authorizing the FBI to perform unlawful actions, as if they, by virtue of being the President, are above the law. The other thing that stands out is the repeated blunders of the FBI and the CIA in their handling of intelligence information. One understands that the agencies get thousands of leads and it is hard to follow up on all of them. But the FBI seems to constantly not follow up on important information that they already have gathered. Often, there have been data and leads to prevent a terrorist act but it was unattended to because of bureaucratic oversight or non-cooperation between the CIA and FBI. The author puts it succinctly as follows: ..'the FBI had individual experts but no institutional knowledge. Its 56 field offices worked in isolation. Agents rarely talked to analysts. The terrorism task forces across the country rarely talked to the HQ. And often the Director was at loggerheads with the White House..' (for eg, Bill Clinton and L.J.Freeh). Elsewhere the author writes on it in beautiful language as '..the FBI agents at the dawn of the Internet Age lived in a sixty-four kilobyte world...'.
On the composition of the FBI till the beginning of the 21st century, the author says, "...the FBI had been a man's world - usually men of Irish or Italian heritage schooled by Jesuits and raised in a closed culture of police and priests...'

Some other revelations are shocking. Lyndon Johnson had illegally used the FBI to spy on the Nixon campaign during the 1968 elections. But even worse was the fact that Nixon had torpedoed Johnson's peace talks with the communists in Vietnam in 1968 by asking the South Vietnam dictator not to make a peace deal with LBJ and Humphrey. He asked the dictator to wait till he himself was elected and then get a better deal. It didn't seem to bother Nixon that many young Americans would die in the meanwhile unnecessarily.
Other things of interest are the FBI agent George Piro's interrogation of Saddam Hussein in captivity. On being asked about his WMDs, Saddam says, "..it has been a long running bluff, a decption intended to keep the Iranians, the Israelis and the US at bay. By God, if I had them, I would have used them in the fight against the US..."
Also, during the early 1940s, a fake map which purported to indicate a Nazi plot for a new world order and take the war into the US and South America surfaced. It was circulated to FDR and the FBI and they bought into it completely. Actually, it was a ploy by the British intelligence to help draw the US into the war. They were the creators of the map but it remained a secret for decades after.

The book is a great read and everyone interested in civil liberties in our democracy must read it to get a composite picture of how the democracy functions in reality. According to the constitution, it is the FBI's primary duty to protect the rights of the citizens above all. The author says that the FBI failed in doing it all through the 20th century; however, under the current head Bob Mueller it is finally doing it. That is good to know.

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Apr 28, 2012 Mike rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: anyone interested in american history, the fbi, civil liberties

Shelves: first-reads, us-history

I got this book through a goodreads giveaway; that didn't affect my opinion.

Excellent, well-sourced work of relatively (can't expect total) impartial scholarship covering the history of the FBI, focusing on the Bureau as an intelligence organization (if you're interested in crime fighting, the mob, Waco, etc., you'll be disappointed). A tale of utter incompetence, constant leaks, constitutional infringements, blackmail, political infighting and abuses, miscommunication, petty jealousies, and que...more

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Jul 29, 2012 Ross rated it 4 of 5 stars

The complete history of the FBI and the absolute disaster that it has been. Every American should be required to read this book and get an idea of "we're from the government, we're here to protect you." Hoover used his secret illegal files to blackmail people in power to gain more power for his own empire. The truth is there was more corruption in the FBI itself than they have ever uncovered in their job to protect the public. Very sad reading. Finally under current Director Mueller the FBI begi...more

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Jul 01, 2012 Pip rated it 4 of 5 stars

Another terrifically researched history that is right up there with Weiner's pulitzer prize winning Legacy of Ashes: the history of the CIA. A chilling read that demonstrates though newly released archival documents just how powerful G-Man J. Edgar Hoover was. It also debunks the myth that Hoover was a closet gay man. Weiner could find absolutely no proof of this rumour. It is too bad the movie about Hoover with a handcuffed DeCaprio starring did not have this book in hand for its research. A ch...more

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May 10, 2013 C.J. Prince rated it 5 of 5 stars

Be ready to set aside a few hours because this book is dense with dates and facts for 537 pages. However, it is so well written that when you want to skip ahead, you might find it hard to do.

I heard Tim Weiner interviewed by Jon Steward (http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/mon... was intrigued by the history of the United States through this lens. So, I recommended it to my book group. Guess who gets to facilitate it? Right. (I'm sure I'll have more comments after our meeting in May.)

J. Edgar Hoov...more

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Apr 11, 2013 Rohan rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: favorites

This book is not just an account of J. Edgar Hoover's life in any way. It is a comprehensive history of the FBI. But his death and the state of the FBI and US intelligence after his death described in this book will tell you the important role the man played while he was the director of the FBI. He was without doubt, the most powerful man in the US if not the entire world while he was alive. The good thing about the Author is that he doesn't get absorbed by Hoover's personality (unlike me) and h...more

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Jun 15, 2012 Sam rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: history

Tim Weiner delivers deep reporting on some of America's least-comfortable history. First in Legacy of Ashes and now in Enemies, Weiner opens the files of America's intelligence agencies, in this case, the FBI. Rather than focusing on organized crime and Waco-type crises, Enemies burrows into the vague founding of the FBI, its heavy tread on the trail of foreign, often communist, agents both real and imagined. In the course of the FBI's intelligence service and Weiner's narrative, numerous illega...more

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Apr 30, 2012 Julie F rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: first-reads

I received this as a First Reads give away.

I really appreciated that the publisher sent a nice hardcover instead of the usual flimsy ARC that generally fall apart after one reading. I am glad that I will be able to share this excellent well-researched history of the FBI with others.

This story of the FBI is well-written, detailed and comprehensive. It would be impossible for any history of the FBI to not also be the story of J Edgar Hoover as well and an extensive biography of Hoover is provided...more

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Mar 31, 2013 Ryan rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2016-challenge

I loved this book. For a 450-page book, I was never bored. The first 75% of the book is almost completely about J. Edgar Hoover, which makes sense because he basically created the FBI out of his own will and determination. In contrast to most of the discussion around Hoover when the eponymous movie came out, Weiner does not try to delve into Hoover's sexuality. He focuses his attention on Hoover's acts as a truly powerful player in Washington. The amount of political intrigue and the sheer numbe...more

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topics	posts	views	last activity
The History Book ...: 13. ENEMIES: A HISTORY OF THE FBI - BOOK AS A WHOLE AND FINAL THOUGHTS ~ August 27th - August 31st (SPOILER THREAD)	49	82	13 de Abr 06:12
The History Book ...: 2. ENEMIES: A HISTORY OF THE FBI - CHAPTERS FIVE - EIGHT (33 - 70) ~ June 11th - June 17th; No Spoilers, Please	76	68	22 de Oct 19:55
The History Book ...: Book Recipients	5	22	14 de Sep 23:52
The History Book ...: Q&A with Tim	233	125	27 de Ago 09:40
The History Book ...: 12. ENEMIES: A HISTORY OF THE FBI - CHAPTERS FORTY-FOUR - AFTERWARD (413 - 450) ~ August 20th - August 26th; No Spoilers, Please	17	37	25 de Ago 19:14
The History Book ...: 11. ENEMIES: A HISTORY OF THE FBI - CHAPTERS FORTY - FORTY-THREE (367 - 412) ~ August 13th - August 19th; No Spoilers, Please	27	40	25 de Ago 17:49
The History Book ...: ENEMIES: A HISTORY OF THE FBI - GLOSSARY ~ (SPOILER THREAD)	258	65	22 de Ago 06:23

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About Tim Weiner

Tim Weiner has been a reported for the New York Times since 1993 as a foreign correspondent in Mexico and as a national security correspondent in Washington, DC. He won the 1988 Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting as an investigative reporter at the Philadelphia Inquirer for his articles on the black budget spending at the Pentagon and the CIA.

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Books by Tim Weiner

Betrayal: The Story of Aldrich Ames, an American Spy

Blank Check: The Pentagon's Black Budget

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