page_title: Max Lowenthal
section_title: Works
hierarchical_section_title: Max Lowenthal / Works
caption_attribution_description: English: J. Edgar Hoover, head of the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation, 1961. Deutsch: J. Edgar Hoover, der wohl berühmteste und berüchtigste FBI-Direktor Italiano: John Edgar Hoover nel 1961 Polski: J. Edgar Hoover przez 48 lat stał na czele BOI, następnie od 1935 roku już FBI Svenska: John Edgar Hoover
context_page_description: Max Lowenthal was a Washington, DC, political figure in all three branches of the federal government in the 1930s and 1940s, during which time he was closely associated with the rising career of Harry S. Truman; he served under Oscar R. Ewing on an "unofficial policy group" within the Truman administration.
context_section_description: In 1950 he wrote a book about the FBI, in which he dealt with issues he felt were still unresolved "although they were brought to light and discussed by statesmen in 1908 and 1909 when the police force now known as the FBI was created."  The New York Times announced the book a day in advance of its publication on November 21, 1947, with a subtitle that read "Lawyer Says Hoover Policies Set Up Secret Police."   In New York Times Sunday Book Review, Cabell Phillips said the book showed "immense research and careful documentation" and "almost for the first time... it pulled aside the self‐righteous cloak in which the FBI has wrapped itself."  Writing for the University of Chicago Law Review in 1952, however, T. Henry Walnut (member of the Pennsylvania Bar) noted "From Mr. Lowenthal's review of the FBI's political activities they would appear negligible between the years 1924 and 1946, when the Bureau picked up the trail of the Communist. This period, however, was not a political vacuum. It was filled with differences as bitter as any the country has ever known...  If Mr. Lowenthal is still looking for evidence as to what can be done through the FBI, under its present centralized direction from Washington, to oppress dissenting individuals and groups, it would be well for him to study the period from December 8, 1941 to the end of 1945. George M. Elsey, Administrative Assistant to the President (1949–1951) felt that "Lowenthal had a passionate dislike of the FBI and J. Edgar Hoover in particular."  Asked to read galley proofs for his book on the FBI, he later commented, "The book was so unfair, so grossly biased, so sloppily done in every respect that it couldn't possibly influence anybody about the FBI. Any serious reader would just lay the thing aside in disgust... The President was just tolerant, shrugged his shoulder, tended to laugh it off and say, 'Oh, Max is that way'."
  Books:
  The Investor Pays (1933) (1936)
  The Railroad Reorganization Act (1933)
  Uncredited speeches for Harry S. Truman
  The Federal Bureau of Investigation (1950) (1971)
  Police methods in crime detection and counter-espionage (1951) (paper)
caption: J. Edgar Hoover, FBI director (1924–1972)
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