|
 |
EVENT DETAIL
Young J. Edgar: Hoover, the Red Scare and the Assault on Civil Liberties
Wednesday, May 9, 2007 7 – 9 pm
Event has expired. Registration for this event is no longer available.
On September 16, 1920, just as the clock of Trinity Church chimed noon and as Wall Street workers on their lunch break filled the street, a devastating bomb blast in front of the J.P. Morgan & Company building at 23 Wall Street killed thirty-eight people and injured over 400. One observer was quoted in The New York Times to say, “And there is no question in my mind that it was the work of Bolsheviki.” Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer, whose own Washington home had been bombed, had already begun a law enforcement initiative against suspected radical bombers. His point man was the 24-year old J. Edgar Hoover.
Hoover had developed files on thousands of suspected Communists. He helped execute a series of raids and arrested more than 10,000 Americans suspected of treason. As the public became alarmed about these Palmer raids, a backlash against the Attorney General developed. Hoover, displaying useful bureaucratic survival skills, managed to advance in his career. In 1924, Hoover was named the director of the Bureau of Investigation which later became the FBI, a position he held until his death in 1972.
Ken Ackerman, a lawyer and the author of Boss Tweed, brings to life Hoover’s coolness and calculation, as well as his drive to gain immense power. He also raises questions of just how much power an official should have and how a society under threat must balance its own self-defense with its citizens’ right to speak for unpopular causes. With the Palmer raids as a lens through which to view the alleged terror-hysteria of post-9/11 America, Young J. Edgar reaches the heart of the our modern debate over personal freedom in time of war and fear.
Speaker:
KENNETH D. ACKERMAN
Lawyer and author of Boss Tweed, Dark Horse and The Gold Ring
Sponsored by:
Committee on Books at the Bar, Francis J. Murphy, Chair
Mr. Ackerman’s book tour is scheduled to begin on May 10, 2007 at the New-York Historical Society, who has generously consented to allow the Association this pre-view lecture. Their web site is www.nyhistory.org.
Please register online
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
