This summer, when the Barbenheimer movie marathon was a thing, I did an MLK-J.Edgar Hoover marathon, reading King, a Life, by Jonathan Eig (669 pages), and 2023 Pulitzer Prize winner G-man: J. Edgar Hoover and the Making of the American Century, by Beverly Gage, (837 pages) back-to-back. Both books are monumental works that shed light on America then and now.

King’s bio brought home how driven King was, not just a leader but a prophet able to summon real force to change America. He also, apparently, was driven to seek the company of women other than his wife, which made me wonder if the two drives were related. Hoover’s bio reminded me he’d spent decades persecuting gays and communists before his attention was drawn to MLK. It was interesting to see how Hoover had no qualms about orchestrating the destruction of MLK’s life if necessary to maintain the existing order.

The interplay between King, Hoover, Kennedy and LBJ is fascinating, how they all attempted to manage each other. It was interesting to learn that LBJ and Hoover were neighbors, and that LBJ, after Kennedy’s assassination, instructed Hoover that his report should ensure that people didn’t think the killing was a conspiracy. Hoover also supported Nixon – Hoover was adept at serving power in both parties without diminishing his own.

But what surprised me, when reading these two books, is how race, socialism, and gayness structured narratives from the Prohibition to Hoover’s death in 1972 and still, many would argue, structure narratives today.