Although I like the idea of #Bookwyrm being sort of subterranean-ly connected to Mastodon via the Fediverse, still unclear about best way to use it. But one of my goals for 2024 is to read more openly...

So I am planning to:
- import books into my bookwyrm when I start reading them
- boost that starting status on my #Mastodon profile, like I did here
- Then add comments and reading notes from Mastodon to Bookwyrm along the way

Does that make any sense at all? How do other folks connect reading notes to their reading activity?

(Editing to mark this as the start of my running commentary on

Beverly Gage - *G-Man: J. Edgar Hoover and the Making of the American Century*)

A few themes I'm particularly interested in as I read Beverly Gage's *G-Man: J. Edgar Hoover and the Making of the American Century*:

Theme 1:
The construction and evolution of state power, both as centered upon an individual and as enacted through changing social/political/cultural structures. Gage writes: "The truth is that power does not simply arrive. It has to be created, policy by policy, law by law, step by excruciating step" (xvi). Tracking what this means in relation to not just Hoover's power, but governmental power in the 20th c., should be an interesting project.

Theme 2: Power beyond electoral politics. Hoover represents a form of authority based in governmental-bureaucratic structures beyond electoral politics, structures outside the normal purview of American political life but still anchored to it. His story is very much the story of this form of power and influence in 20th c. America.

Theme 3: Religion and civil service.

I've never really thought a great deal about religion as a particular motivating factor in Hoover's crusades, but Gage is setting up religion as a critical part of Hoover's early make-up. So I'll be reading to fit this into larger narratives about 20th c. US religion, esp. modern Christian conservatism on the one hand, and the place of religion in the construction of the 20th-c "American Way" -- while tying this back to Hoover's unique authority and position.

Theme 4: The longer arc of 20th c conservatism.

Gage makes a good point in the intro: we often begin the story of the rise of 20th c. (political) conservatism through Buckley -> Goldwater -> Nixon and the Southern Strategy. Hoover sheds light on a longer, earlier arc that we might take more seriously; Gage suggests his conservatism is established very early, and perhaps represents a version of conservative state-building that is hard to recognize in today's political climate.

A little slow going for the first 7 or 8 chapters, but once you get into Hoover's actual Justice Department work, *G-Man* picks up quite a bit.

Gage offers several great insights around the January 1920 Justice Dept raids of the Communist parties -- raids that, of course, included brutality, warrantless arrests, misidentifications, etc., and brought in some 7300 arrests nearly overnight.

But one of her insights is easy to overlook: behind the raids is an extremely sloppy understanding of this period's communist activities that doesn't just conflate all "radicals" (anarchists, labor activists) with communists, but fails to distinguish communism *at that moment, in the US* from the Bolshevik Revolution, let alone from Marx (!).

"Hoover saw little distinction between the social theories of a nineteenth-century German philosopher, the actions of an embattled Russian revolutionary government, and the moment-to-moment proclivities of American radicals. All were part of the same criminal plot." (p. 78)

It's also absolutely stunning to recognize that the entire early anti-Communist policy of the Justice Dept is really the brainchild of a 24-year-old Hoover who is, quite literally, brand new not just to communism, but for the most part to any serious study of American radicalism. His ability to amass and organize information is impressive, but is it not also a striking lesson in the dangers of overnight expertise?

And he *was* the expert on communism/communist activities of the moment! So the anti-communist work that lasts the better part of the 20th century is largely directed by someone cramming for exams, so to speak.