War on crime
Subtitle: bandits, G-men, and the politics of mass culture
By: Claire Bond Potter.
Publisher: Rutgers University Press
Published: 1998
Place of publication: New Brunswick, N.J
Language: eng
Number of pages: 250
Subjects: Hoover, J. Edgar 1895-1972.; United States. Federal Bureau of Investigation -- History.; Criminal investigation -- United States -- History -- 20th century.; Crime -- United States -- History -- 20th century.; Crime -- Government policy -- United States -- History -- 20th century.; Criminal investigation in mass media -- United States -- History -- 20th century.; Crime in mass media -- History -- 20th century.; Crime in popular culture -- United States -- History -- 20th century.; New Deal, 1933-1939.
Description: War on Crime revises the history of the New Deal transformation and suggests a new model for political historyone which recognizes that cultural phenomena and the political realm produce, between them, an idea of "the state." The war on crime was fought with guns and pens, movies and legislation, radio and government hearings. All of these methods illuminate this period of state transformation and perceptions of that emergent state, in the years of the first New Deal.

The study of the creation of G-men and gangsters as cultural heroes in this period not only explores the Depression-era obsession with crime and celebrity, but it also lends insight on how citizens understood a nation undergoing large political and social changes.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 203-244) and index.