G-Man: J. Edgar Hoover and the Making of the American Century

by Beverly Gage

Observing this rush of approval, Felix Frankfurter once again wrote to Stone from Harvard to warn that “Hoover was too actively associated with the Mitchell Palmer deportation proceedings” to reform the Bureau effectively. In deference to the attorney general, Frankfurter acknowledged that Hoover “might be a very effective and zealous instrument of the realization of the ‘liberal ideas’ which you had in mind” as long as Stone remained in office. Frankfurter worried, though, that Hoover might revert to old ways under a less liberal and “energizing” boss. Stone argued that they would have to take “the fat with the lean”—and that for now, Hoover would do fine. Over the long term, though, it was Frankfurter who proved the more prescient of the two. Throughout his career, Hoover would often defer to his “liberal” bosses at the White House and the Justice Department, accommodating political reality as necessary and often earning their wholehearted support. But he would also build independent forms of power that insulated him from political pressure and allowed him to carry out his own agenda.