War on Crime: Bandits, G-Men, and the Politics of Mass Culture.

Abstract

War on Crime revises history of New Deal transformation and suggests a new model for political history--one which recognizes that cultural phenomena and political realm produce, between them, and idea of the state. The on 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 years of first New Deal. This study of creation of G-men and gangsters as cultural heroes in this period not only explores Depression-era obsession with and celebrity, but it also lends insight on how citizens understood a nation undergoing large political and social changes. Anxieties about today have become a familiar route for creation of new government agencies and extension of state authority. It is important to remember original war on crime in 1930s--and opportunities it afforded to New Dealers and established bureaucrats like J. Edgar Hoover--as scholars grapple with ways states assert influence over populations, local authority, and party politics while they pursue goals such as reducing popular violence and protecting private property.