The FBI: A History
Author: Rhodri Jeffreys Jones
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.
Daniel K. Blewett - Library Journal
Both a chronological narrative of major events and an examination of the important issues regarding the FBI's controversial operations and policies (e.g., its illegal harassment of organizations and its hiring of relatively few women and minorities), this book carries on a theme of Jeffreys-Jones's (American history, Edinburgh Univ.) Cloak and Dollarthat intelligence agencies are playing confidence games on the public, exaggerating threats to get more resources and fewer restrictions. Using both secondary sources and FBI case files, the author touches on how American politics and society have affected the organization and the executive branch's efforts to control it. In contrast to other books highlighting FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover's prominence, this one gives more emphasis to the efforts of the attorneys-general to guide and reform the bureau. Interest in racial problems and suspicion of African Americans are common threads throughout, making this book a good supplement to Kenneth O'Reilly's Racial Matters: The FBI's Secret File on Black America, 1960-1972. Suitable for academic and large public libraries.
Book review: Power to Heal or Osteoporosis Handbook
Women in Power: The Personalities and Leadership Styles of Indira Gandhi, Golda Meir, and Margaret Thatcher
Author: Blema S Steinberg
In Women in Power, Blema S. Steinberg explores the personalities and leadership styles of three remarkable female leaders, Indira Gandhi, Golda Meir, and Margaret Thatcher to help us understand the ways in which personality impacts on leadership. The personality traits of each woman are examined using insights from the fields of psychiatry, psychology, and psychoanalysis, while their respective leadership styles draw upon measures developed by political scientists. Steinberg then tests the theoretical expectations concerning the relationship between different personality traits and leadership styles against the empirical evidence for each prime minister. The book concludes with a comparative analysis of her results.
Table of Contents:
Figures and Tables
Pt. 1 Indira Gandhi
1 Indira Gandhi: From Prime Minister's Daughter to Prime Minister 17
2 Mother India: The Personality Profile of Indira Gandhi 46
3 Indira Gandhi's Leadership Style 72
Pt. 2 Golda Meir
4 Golda Meir: From Immigrants' Daughter to Prime Minister 115
5 The Jewish Grandmother: The Personality Profile of Golda Meir 145
6 Golda Meir's Leadership Style 172
Pt. 3 Margaret Thatcher
7 Margaret Thatcher: From Grocer's Daughter to Prime Minister 211
8 The Iron Lady: The Personality Profile of Margaret Thatcher 239
9 Margaret Thatcher's Leadership Style 264
Conclusion 301
Appendix Conceptual Framework and Methodology 321
Notes 367
Bibliography 411
Index 423
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