Public Enemies

Journalist Bryan Burrough, grandson of an FBI agent, details the spread of both a new type of crime and a new type of crime-catcher in the early 1930s. The socioeconomic conditions in the U.S. during the Great Depression facilitated the rise in flashy, bloody crime sprees across state lines, committed by limelight-seeking perpetrators such as Bonnie and Clyde, John Dillinger, Pretty Boy Floyd, and Baby Face Nelson. Prior to this point, there was no organization with the jurisdiction to pursue interstate criminals. In response, J. Edgar Hoover was given the mandate to create one: the Federal Bureau of Investigation, which sought (and achieved) its own celebrity status as it hunted down America's most notorious criminals. PUBLIC ENEMIES was named a 2004 New York Times Notable Book.