The FBI: A History | 
| Author: Rhodri Jeffreys-jones
Publisher: Yale University Press
Category: Book
List Price: $18.00
Buy New: $7.25
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Avg. Customer Rating:  2 reviews
Sales Rank: 804915
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 320
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.1
Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 6.2 x 1
ISBN: 0300142846
Dewey Decimal Number: 363
EAN: 9780300142846
ASIN: 0300142846
Publication Date: July 28, 2008
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Condition: CHARITY SALE!! New book -- slight shelf wear. 100% of the proceeds benefit the literacy efforts of Books For America.
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Product Description
This fast-paced history of the FBI presents the first balanced and complete portrait of the vast, powerful, and sometimes bitterly criticized American institution. Rhodri Jeffreys-Jones, a well-known expert on U.S. intelligence agencies, tells the bureau’s story in the context of American history. Along the way he challenges conventional understandings of that story and assesses the FBI’s strengths and weaknesses as an institution. Common wisdom traces the origin of the bureau to 1908, but Jeffreys-Jones locates its true beginnings in the 1870s, when Congress acted in response to the Ku Klux Klan campaign of terror against black American voters. The character and significance of the FBI derive from this original mission, the author contends, and he traces the evolution of the mission into the twenty-first century. The book makes a number of surprising observations: that the role of J. Edgar Hoover has been exaggerated and the importance of attorneys general underestimated, that splitting counterintelligence between the FBI and the CIA in 1947 was a mistake, and that xenophobia impaired the bureau’s preemptive anti-terrorist powers before and after 9/11. The author concludes with a fresh consideration of today’s FBI and the increasingly controversial nature of its responsibilities.
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| Customer Reviews:
 Very Good History of the FBI January 3, 2008
4 out of 5 found this review helpful
The FBI is a meticulously researched book about an American institution. Unlike most other FBI books, the focus is not on J. Edgar Hoover, but on what might be called the rest of the FBI story. The book covers the origins of the FBI beginning with the creation of the Secret Service during the Civil War and the growth of federal law enforcement leading to the creation of the FBI in 1908.
This book makes some surprising findings such as the fact that as of September 10, 2001, there were only 6 Muslim FBI agents and only 21 FBI agents who could speak Arabic. This was a major factor in the success of the terrorists on 9/11. Another factor was the lack of communications and cooperation with the CIA.
This is a great book about the FBI. Its only weakness is a lack of detailed info about J. Edgar Hoover the man and whatever illegal activities that he was up to.
 Let The Buyer Beware October 15, 2007
2 out of 12 found this review helpful
Anyone contemplating this book purchase should first consult the author's account of the kidnapping and murder of Charles Lindbergh's infant son on March 1, 1932, truly one of the most infamous crimes in American history. Professor Jeffreys-Jones relates on page 88 that the culprit, Bruno Richard Hauptmann, was apprehended in June 1932, based on handwriting analysis done by one Charles Appel of the FBI. According to the author, Appel's analysis held up at the trial and the kidnapper went to the chair.
The Professor's version of these events is detached from reality. Bruno Hauptmann was actually arrested on September 19, 1934, based on information obtained by the investigators the previous day. No handwriting analysis was involved. Hauptmann had purchased some gas, given one of the ransom notes in payment, and assured the gas station employee that the bill, a gold certificate, was valid and one of a hundred he still had. The suspicious employee wrote Hauptmann's license plate number on the bill. This bill was detected by a bank employee on September 18, 1934 as part of the ransom and the authorities were called.
Hauptmann's trial for kidnapping and murder began in New Jersey in January 1935. The New York Times gave the trial extensive coverage, and identified the eight handwriting experts called by the prosecutors. Charles Appel was not one of the eight. How Appel's analysis supposedly held up at a trial in which he did not testify is truly a mystery Jeffreys-Jones needs to explain.
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