J. Edgar Hoover

Political Figure / Government Official

In 1913 John Edgar Hoover began working in U.S. government service, first at the Library of Congress, then at the Justice Department. During World War I Hoover worked for the Bureau of Investigation, keeping statistical records of immigrants for the Alien Enemy Bureau. A vigorous anti-communist, Hoover quickly moved up the ranks in the postwar period, and by 1924 was appointed Director of the Bureau of Investigation, later called the Federal Bureau of Investigation (F.B.I.). He held the post for nearly fifty years, his administration lasting from President Coolidge to President Nixon. Hoover had a reputation for hypervigilance in the face of crime and political subversion, and the F.B.I. grew to become known as incorruptible law officers who kept files on just about everybody, from John Lennon and Martin Luther King, Jr. to Marilyn Monroe and Eldridge Cleaver. Hoover has been a controversial figure since his death, and there has been much speculation about his personal life, family background and dictatorial rule over the Bureau; given his political power over five decades, he is a central figure in the history of scandal and U.S. politics.