The birth of the FBI : Teddy Roosevelt, the Secret Service, and the fight over America's premier law enforcement agency

Summary: Most people believe the Federal Bureau of Investigation began under J. Edgar Hoover in the 1920s or 1930s. Many also naturally assume it was developed for the express purpose of fighting crime. However, the reality is very different. The agency actually began years earlier, in 1908, under President Theodore Roosevelt. Willard Oliver details the political fight that led to the birth of America's premier law enforcement agency. Roosevelt was concerned about conservation and one issue he wanted enforced were the fraudulent land deals being perpetrated by many people, including some members of Congress. When he began using the Secret Service to investigate these crimes, Congress blocked him from doing so. The end result of this political spat was Roosevelt's creation of a Federal Bureau of Investigation, which heightened the political row between the two branches of government in the final year of Roosevelt's presidency.

Record details

ISBN: 9781442265035
ISBN: 1442265035
Physical Description: print
xi, 329 pages : illustrations, portraits ; 24 cm
Publisher: Lanham, Maryland : Rowman & Littlefield, [2019]

Content descriptions

Bibliography, etc. Note:	Includes bibliographical references (pages 265-321) and index.
Formatted Contents Note:	Federal law enforcement -- Pinkerton's detectives -- Counterfeiters -- Assassinations -- The Secret Service -- The making of president Theodore Roosevelt -- Conservation -- Land thieves -- Chairman James A. Tawney -- The Bureau of Investigation -- Born in controversy -- The battle over the Bureau -- Sore losers and petty politics -- The aftermath -- Epilogue.