Since its founding, the Federal Bureau of Investigation has grappled with how to balance personal liberty and national security. The bureau grew exponentially in the years following World War I, as the country became increasingly terrified by the communist threat. The fear of communism often served as a guide for J. Edgar Hoover, the man who built the FBI and ran the Bureau for more than 40 years. Tim Weiner’s book, “Enemies: A History of the FBI,” investigates 70,000 pages of recently-declassified documents to understand just how far the man who engeineered the FBI thwarted civil liberties in the name of national security.
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