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Public Enemies
America's Greatest Crime Wave And The Birth Of The FBI, 1933-34
by Bryan Burrough


8.5

based on 12 reviews
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based on 8 votes
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Official Publisher Site

Acclaimed Vanity Fair contributor Bryan Burrough brings to life the most spectacular crime wave in American history: the two-year battle between J. Edgar Hoover's FBI and John Dillinger, Bonnie and Clyde, Baby Face Nelson, Pretty Boy Floyd, and the Barkers. [Penguin Press]

Penguin Press, 592 pages
07/15/2004
$29.95

ISBN: 1594200211

Nonfiction
History
True Crime

All reviews are classified as one of five grades: Outstanding (4 points), Favorable (3), Mixed (2), Unfavorable (1) and Terrible (0). To calculate the Metascore, we divide total points achieved by the total points possible (i.e., 4 x the number of reviews), with the resulting percentage (multiplied by 100) being the Metascore. Learn more...

Chicago Sun-Times Roger K. Miller

It is quite superb -- readable, thorough and critical -- with masses of new information from FBI files that were opened only in the late 1980s.

Chicago Tribune Matthew Dallek

Burrough's narrative is fast-paced, his prose captivating. Drawing upon several hundred-thousand FBI documents, Burrough has conducted important new research. He re-creates in vivid detail the criminals' whereabouts, characteristics and ignominious rise to Depression-era fame.

Entertainment Weekly Bob Cannon

Enemies is an amazingly detailed true-life thriller that puts us on a stakeout alongside the feds, inside the banks while bullets fly, and inevitably, next to the criminals' bloody corpses.

Kirkus Reviews

Iconoclastic and fascinating. A genuine treat for true-crime buffs, and for anyone interested in the New Deal era.

Publishers Weekly

[Burrough] successfully translates years of dogged research, which included thorough review of recently disclosed FBI files, into a graceful narrative.

The Spectator David Hughes

The air of an old movie pervades these pages, an early talkie, with scratchy soundtrack, slightly overacted, as creaky as its cast's own ethics. The delight lies always in the detail.

Wall Street Journal Richard Tofel

Mr. Burrough does a remarkable job of reportorial reconstruction, drawing from hundreds of thousands of pages of FBI files released only in the past quarter-century. He seems to have absorbed every detail.

Washington Post Lawrence M. Friedman

It is a wild and amazing story, and Burrough tells it with great gusto... It is easy to toss around terms like "definitive," but this book deserves it. It is hard to imagine a more careful, complete and entrancing book on this subject, and on this era.

The Guardian Clare Longrigg

A rollicking ride through an endless series of bank heists and car chases.

San Francisco Chronicle Chuck Leddy

Excellent reading for fans of American history and true crime.

The New York Times Edward P. Lazarus

Fascinating but also a bit numbing. At some point one well-told stickup and getaway begins to run into another.

The New York Times Book Review Mark Costello

As the story of the F.B.I.'s emergence from the 10-ring circus that was 1934, Public Enemies is excellent true crime with all the strengths and limitations this implies. Burrough's stirring book goes easy on the Ph.D. conclusions.

The average user rating for this book is 8.5 (out of 10) based on 8 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Darrell N gave it a10:
Public Enemies is as much a page-turner as any non-fiction book can be. Over the years, popular culture has inflated the stories of these American gangsters with myth and melodrama. Bryan Burrough strips away these embellishments, and in doing so, describes actual events more fascinating than the best crime novel.

Jimmy D gave it a0:
I hate reading books for school.

Bill D gave it an8:
This book would have benefitted from some speed bumps to slow the action. A few pauses to consider what this all meant would have been welcome.

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Public Enemies America's Greatest Crime Wave And The Birth Of The FBI, 1933-34 by Bryan Burrough

Public Enemies
America's Greatest Crime Wave And The Birth Of The FBI, 1933-34
by Bryan Burrough