Masters of Deceit: The Story of Communism is America and How to Fight It

Fourth printing by the author the long-time FBI Director. Inscribed: To Kenneth M. Russell Best Wishes J. Edgar Hoover 3.19.59.

Beautifully signed on first front page. Book in fine condition and dust jacket mildly toned with small tear in top of front, wrinkles in top of spine and tears in bottom and tears and folds on on top of back cover. Very dramatic picture of Hoover with hands folded on back cover. Clean text. Unclipped ($5.00). Protected by Brodart book cover.

Hoover was the first Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and served eight Presidents over his nearly 50 years in charge. Later in life and after his death, Hoover became a controversial figure as evidence of his secretive abuses of power began to surface. He was found to have routinely violated the very laws the FBI was charged with enforcing, to have used the FBI to harass political dissidents, to amass secret files for blackmailing high level politicians, and to collect evidence using vigilantism and many other illegal methods. Hoover consequently amassed a great deal of power and was in a position to intimidate and threaten others, including multiple sitting presidents of the United States.

A virulently anticommunist tract by the former head of the FBI. "The Communist Party, USA, works day and night to further the communist plot in America," J. Edgar Hoover writes. With chapters on who are the communists, why do people become communists, and advice on how to identify and combat "dangerous subversives." An interesting relic from the 1950s Red Scare.