The Day Wall Street Exploded by Jay Hoover

Jay Parini: Hoover played a major role in the Palmer rates which was the first Red Scare they were horrendous violations of civil liberties. There was a backlash in the 1920s to the excesses that Hoover was instrumental in even though he would spend most of his career pretending he didn't have anything to do with it. He felt as a matter of survival he was a pretty good strategist and he was always very very concerned about anything that was going to bring the FBI under criticism.