War on Crime

War on Crime introduces a whole new dimension into analysis of the evolution of the American state in the twentieth century. In Potter's exceedingly capable hands, a New Deal in national policing proves equally as significant as the more frequently discussed federalizations of social welfare, industrial relations, and economic policy. - Lizabeth Cohen (Harvard University) Based on exhaustive and imaginative research, Claire Bond Potter intelligently blends political, cultural, and social history to produce the most satisfying account yet of the forces behind the FBI's rise to power and glory during the Dillinger days of the 1930s. - Richard Gid Powers (author of G-Men: Hoover's FBI in American Popular Culture and Secrecy and Power: The Life of J. Edga) No one who reads Potter will any longer be able to separate the cultural development of the period from the growing role of the FBI, which staged a social coup in legitimizing its professional services in the 'war on crime.' - Paula Fass (University of California, Berkeley)