![Public Enemies: America's Greatest Crime Wave and the Birth of the FBI, 1933-34 | [Bryan Burrough]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51X16QcSWlL._SL175_.jpg "Public Enemies: America's Greatest Crime Wave and the Birth of the FBI, 1933-34 | [Bryan Burrough]")
Public Enemies: America's Greatest Crime Wave and the Birth of the FBI, 1933-34
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- Regular Price :$21.27Special Offer: Learn how to get this for $7.49 !
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Average Customer Rating
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LENGTH5 hrs and 59 mins
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RELEASE DATE07-01-04
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AUDIO FORMATS
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Program TypeAudiobook
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PUBLISHER
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Publisher's Summary
In 1933, police jurisdictions ended at state lines, the FBI was in its infancy, and fast cars and machine guns were easily available. It was a great time to be a bank robber. On hand were a motley crew of criminal masterminds, sociopaths, romantics, and cretins.
Bryan Burrough has unearthed an extraordinary amount of new material on all the major figures involved, revealing many fascinating interconnections in the vast underworld ecosystem that stretched from Texas up to Minnesota.
But the real-life connections were insignificant next to the sense of connectedness J. Edgar Hoover worked to create in the mind of the American public, using the "Great Crime Wave" to gain the position of untouchable power he would occupy for almost half a century.
©2004 Bryan Burrough; (P)2004 Simon & Schuster Inc. AUDIOWORKS is an imprint of Simon & Schuster Audio Division, Simon & Schuster, Inc.
What the Critics Say
"The definitive account of the 1930s crime wave....[Burrough] successfully translates years of dogged research, which included thorough review of recently disclosed FBI files, into a graceful narrative....This book compellingly brings back to life people and times distorted in the popular imagination by hagiographic bureau memoirs and Hollywood." (Publishers Weekly)
"Fascinating..." (The New York Times)
"A colorful history of the mobile, heavily armed, self-glamorizing desperadoes called forth by the Depression and of the government's response, organized by the rigid, brilliant, incorruptible and ultimately creepy J. Edgar Hoover." (The New York Times Book Review)
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What Members Say
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"Need the unabridged version"
A book like this is fascinating, but I learned my lesson with previous purchases: wait for the unabridged edition!
29 of 32 people found this review helpful -
Brian ANCHORAGE, AK, United States 08-10-09 Member Since 2005Say something about yourself!
- HELPFUL VOTES
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- REVIEWS
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- 25
"Good listen....!"
The books goes into most of the gangsters from that era, not just Dillinger. I thought it would have detailed more of Dillinger's life, but it was interesting to hear about some of the other gangsters as well, but not what I thought or like the movie at all.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful -
"Must listen"
This is just excellent. Exciting and insightful. Wonderful book.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful -
"Too Abridged"
Great stories, but I have a feeling that the unabridged version offers more insight into Hoover and the personalities and politics behind the FBI. The abridged version is mostly the gangster tales - very exciting stuff but it lacks the insight that I am sure Burrough meant to communicate. See Michael Mann's movie if you want shootemup stories and wait for the unabridged version if you want the whole story!
0 of 0 people found this review helpful