War on Crime: Gangsters, G-Men,
and the Politics of Mass Culture by
Claire Bond Potter
A Significant Insight Into Mass Culture And 1930'S Crime
War on Crime revises the history of the New Deal transformation and
suggests a new model for political historyone which recognizes that
cultural phenomena and the political realm produce, between them, an
idea of the state. The war on crime was fought with guns and pens, movies
and legislation, radio and government hearings. All of these methods
illuminate this period of state transformation and perceptions of that
emergent state, in the years of the first New Deal. The study of the
creation of G-men and gangsters as cultural heroes in this period not only
explores the Depression-era obsession with crime and celebrity, but it also
lends insight on how citizens understood a nation undergoing large political
and social changes.
Personal Review: War on Crime: Gangsters, G-Men, and the
Politics of Mass Culture by Claire Bond Potter

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.
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