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This is a well researched academic study of the "New Deal" politics behind America's first great "war on crime," when J. Edgar Hoover's "G-men" defeated the highly publicized Midwest bandits personified by the likes of Dillinger, Pretty Boy Floyd, Baby Face Nelson, the Barker-Karpis gang, and Bonnie and Clyde, while simultaneously avoiding any serious conflicts with the forces of organized crime. Potter delves deeply into the popular culture of gangster adulation in the 1930's and also considers the racketeer influence on big city political machines as a factor influencing the Justice Department's crime war. In other words, it was not only surer of success but also more politically rewarding to pursue bank robbers than real mobsters. The efforts of Hoover and his boss, Attorney General Homer Cummings, to overcome state's rights advocates and create a national police agency (the modern FBI) was successful and rested largely on the Justice Department's promotion of Dillinger and other outlaws into national menaces. This is a great study of the era and well worth any gangster buff's time and study. The only real flaws I can see in this book are as follows: [1] it barely--and inaccurately--mentions the Kansas City Union Station massacre, which brought the FBI much needed public support and resulted in the "G-men" being granted the authority to carry firearms; [2] the author implies that there were more than four Barker children and some were honest, which I'm guessing is based purely on the erroneous relatives listed on the Justice Department's Identification Order on Arthur "Doc" Barker; and [3] many names are omitted from the index. These caused me to dock a star from an otherwise excellent work.

Potter brings to life the dynamic interplay between the various aspects (print, radio, film, law, etc.) of mass culture in the US during the 1930's and the omnipresent state "war on crime." Through the skillful depiction and dissection of interesting chapters in the war against crime, such as Bonnie and Cylde, Dillinger, the Barker-Karpis gang, the rise of the FBI, and Hoover's orchestration of crime-fighting operations, this work suggests a "new model for political history." This model recognizes and provides an array of examples that demonstrate that cultural phenomena and the political sphere intersected in the 1930's to produce a new, more modern sense of the American "state" during this period. This is an excellent read and I highly recommend it. In particular, I suggest it to those interested in crime in the 1930's, the politics and cultural passion for post-Depression criminal-heroes, and the nascent idea of a more imposing and powerful state bureaucracy.