For decades the FBI has been seen as the ultimate crime-fighting
force. In Enemies, Tim Weiner reveals its true role- as America's
secret police.
Tim Weiner is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist at the New York Times where he has reported from Afghanistan, Pakistan, the Sudan, and fifteen other nations. He was based for a decade in Washington, DC, where he covered the CIA and the military - the last topic being the basis for his famous book Blank Check- The Pentagon's Black Budget. His latest book is Legacy of Ashes- The History of the CIA (2007).
Truly impressive ... [Enemies] could have been put together
only by a journalist of Weiner's stature -- Keith Lowe * Sunday
Telegraph *
A history that moves at the pace of a James Ellroy novel. But
Weiner's truth is wilder even than Ellroy's fiction. Weiner sets
the record straight on the FBI's first 100 years using only the
Bureau's documents and oral testimony, most of which has never been
seen -- David Blackburn * Spectator *
An outstanding piece of work, even-handed, exhaustively researched,
smoothly written and thematically timely ... This is certainly the
most complete book we are likely to see about the F.B.I.'s
intelligence-gathering operations, from Emma Goldman to Osama bin
Laden -- Bryan Burrough * New York Times *
Extensively researched, admirably understated, yet terrifically
entertaining * Boston Globe *
Important and disturbing ... Weiner lays bare a record of
embarrassing, even stunning failure, in which the bureau's
lawlessness was matched only by its incompetence ... [he] has done
prodigious research, yet tells this depressing story with all the
verve and coherence of a good spy thriller * New York Times Book
Review *
A fascinating account of the Federal Bureau of Investigation's
counterespionage snooping over the past century ... A very good
read * Wall Street Journal *
An authoritative and often frightening history of what has been, in
effect, America's secret police ... A sober, monumental and
unflinchingly critical account of a problematic institution *
Kirkus Reviews *
An important, judicious account of the tension between national
security and civil liberties * Publishers Weekly *
Fascinating ... an important and biting inquiry into an agency that
protects Americans in a dangerous world while straining against the
limitations we rightly impose upon it * San Francisco Chronicle
*
[A] masterpiece ... reads like a thriller, but don't let the
heart-pumping prose fool you ... a scholarly tour de force that
will be an instant classic for any serious student of American
national security -- Amy Zegart (author of Spying Blind: The CIA,
the FBI and the Origins of 9/11)
Fast-paced, fair-minded and fascinating ... turns the long history
of the FBI into a story that is as compelling, and important, as
today's headlines -- Jeffrey Toobin (author of The Nine: Inside the
Secret World of the Supreme Court)
Riveting ... goes so deep into the agency's skullduggery, readers
feel they are tapping the phones along with J. Edgar Hoover. This
is a book that every American who cares about civil liberties
should read -- Jane Mayer (author of The Dark Side)
The most comprehensive history of the FBI as an intelligence agency
we have ever had ... essential reading for anyone concerned about
American civil liberties -- Robert Dallek (author of John F.
Kennedy)
![]() |
Ask a Question About this Product More... |
![]() |