Hoovers war on gays
The Essay
Introduction
Hoover’s War on Gays was, among my three books, my largest, most laborious, yet, without a doubt, the most enjoyable and satisfying research undertaking of my academic career. It was not only a subject deserving comprehensive treatment, it was also a subject of excellent personal interest.
I started researching it in , a few months after completing my dissertation. It was a slow process, as I was concurrently hectic converting my doctoral thesis into my first book.
The easiest and most apparent starting point was collecting the extant FBI files I knew existed — such as relevant parts of Hoover’s secret office files, and those on Sumner Welles, David Walsh, and other singular targets — and compiling everything I knew was written on the subject.
In the process of reading everything in any way akin to the topic, I began to identify subjects for Freedom of Facts Act requests. Researching the FBI is necessarily based on FOIA requests, a time consuming, often overpriced, and sometimes frustrating process.
Obscene File
Besides the obvious FOIA reques
Summary
"Based on extensive research of primary sources and ceaseless FOIA requests, Charles provides the first comprehensive history of J. Edgar Hoover and the FBI's systematic (some would say obsessive) targeting, investigation, and harassment of homosexuals for the half century that began in thes. One of Charles's signal achievements is to piece together the procedures, purposes, and contents of Hoover's "Sex Deviate File" encompassing an estimated 99 cubic feet, or more than , pages, but which was destroyed by the FBI in the late s"-- Provided by publisher.
"At the FBI, the "Sex Deviates" program covered a lot of ground, literally; at its peak, J. Edgar Hoover's notorious "Sex Deviates" file encompassed nearly 99 cubic feet or more than , pages of data. In these files were destroyed--and it would sound that four decades of the FBI's dirty secrets went up in smoke. But in a unusual feat of investigative study, synthesis, and scholarly detective work, Douglas M. Charles manages to fill in the yawning blanks in the bureau's history of systematic (some would speak obse
Hoover's War on Gays: Exposing the FBI's "Sex Deviates" Program
Synopsis
At the FBI, the Sex Deviates
program covered a lot of ground, literally; at its highlight, J. Edgar Hoover's notorious Sex Deviates
file encompassed nearly 99 cubic feet or more than , pages of information. In &#x; these files were destroyed&#x;and it would seem that four decades of the FBI's dirty secrets went up in smoke. But in a remarkable feat of investigative analyze, synthesis, and scholarly detective work, Douglas M. Charles manages to fill in the yawning blanks in the bureau's history of systematic (some would speak obsessive) interest in the lives of gay and queer woman Americans in the twentieth century. His book, Hoover&#x;s War on Gays, is the first to fully expose the extraordinary invasion of US citizens' privacy perpetrated on a historic scale by an institution tasked with protecting American life.
For much of the twentieth century, when exposure might mean nothing brief of ruin, queer American men and women had much to fear from law enforcement of every kind&#x;but none so much
Hoover's War on Gays: Exposing the FBI's "Sex Deviates" Program
At the FBI, the &#;Sex Deviates&#; program covered a lot of earth, literally; at its peak, J. Edgar Hoover&#;s notorious &#;Sex Deviates&#; file encompassed nearly 99 cubic feet or more than , pages of information. In &#; these files were destroyed&#;and it would seem that four decades of the FBI&#;s dirty secrets went up in smoke. But in a remarkable feat of investigative research, synthesis, and scholarly detective work, Douglas M. Charles manages to fill in the yawning blanks in the bureau&#;s history of systematic (some would say obsessive) interest in the lives of gay and woman loving woman Americans in the twentieth century. His book, Hoover&#;s War on Gays, is the first to fully expose the extraordinary invasion of US citizens&#; privacy perpetrated on a historic scale by an institution tasked with protecting American life.
For much of the twentieth century, when exposure might mean nothing short of wreck, gay American men and women had much to fear from law enforcement of every kind&#;but none so much as the FBI, wit