The Burglary by Betty Medsgar
Review by Elleanore Vance
Welcome back, my Lovely Readers! The year was 1971; the location was a neighborhood of Philadelphia known as Germantown. Richard Nixon is President of the United States, the Vietnam conflict rages in Asia as protestors attack draft board offices, and J. Edgar Hoover was the untouchable head of the FBI.
For eight (nine) people, and really the whole nation, the world as they know it is about to change. All it took is a lot of planning, and a bit of daring do. This small group of individuals would do the impossible: Burgle the FBI.
'Why would they risk the prison sentance?,'you may be asking. Because they believed Hoover was using his agents to quell dissent. Rumors around the counter culture were that men who did not fit in (short hair and wing-tipped shoes) were showing up to protests, attempting to turn peaceful events into violent encounters.
As good Ole J. Edgar wasn't known for sharing the Bureau's secrets, the only way the Media 8 (9) would know for sure would be to get their hands some actual Bureau files. They appointed themselves the Citizens Commission to Investigate the FBI, and got to work.
Author Betty Medsgar, former reporter for the Washington Post, lays out the whole show. We learn a bit about J. Edgar and his tenure as FBI Director, the Vietnam conflict, and the ensuing protests. Most importantly we get to meet each oneof the eight (nine) burglars. Their journeys coalesce into a cohesive sample of the people who made up the counter culture of the 1960s-1970s. Like a drop of the ocean seen under a microscope, the burglars were all vastly different with his or her own motivations. All of this background is essential to understand the justification of this major act of civil disobedience.
There is so much meat to this book! Medsgar lays out for us the lead up to the crime, the crime itself, and the aftermath. (Spoiler alert, J. Edgar loses his mind.) Growing from the seed of a single event, the burglary of an FBI office in Media, Pennsylvania, this book blooms with detail and context.
I found myself very inspired by this book. As a child I was often told that i was a Flower Child at heart, and at that time I did not understand. (Nowadays, I would say I'm a Pastel Goth Flower Child, thank you very much!) This book has me adding "All the President's Men" to my TBR pile, because Watergate followed Media by a year and some change. Also, because Medsgar gives so much context, I feel that AtPM will be easier for me to comprehend.
As I am sure you've guessed by now, Dear Reader, I have been fascinated. That alone meant it was a book you needed to know about. I enjoyed this book on Audible, and Bronson Pinchot's narration is top notch. Plus, in the audio we getbto hear from the 9th member of the Media gang who hid herself so very well she did not show up in the initial text. I really cannot reccomend this story highly enough
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 5/5
Welcome back, my Lovely Readers! The year was 1971; the location was a neighborhood of Philadelphia known as Germantown. Richard Nixon is President of the United States, the Vietnam conflict rages in Asia as protestors attack draft board offices, and J. Edgar Hoover was the untouchable head of the FBI.
For eight (nine) people, and really the whole nation, the world as they know it is about to change. All it took is a lot of planning, and a bit of daring do. This small group of individuals would do the impossible: Burgle the FBI.
'Why would they risk the prison sentance?,'you may be asking. Because they believed Hoover was using his agents to quell dissent. Rumors around the counter culture were that men who did not fit in (short hair and wing-tipped shoes) were showing up to protests, attempting to turn peaceful events into violent encounters.
As good Ole J. Edgar wasn't known for sharing the Bureau's secrets, the only way the Media 8 (9) would know for sure would be to get their hands some actual Bureau files. They appointed themselves the Citizens Commission to Investigate the FBI, and got to work.
Author Betty Medsgar, former reporter for the Washington Post, lays out the whole show. We learn a bit about J. Edgar and his tenure as FBI Director, the Vietnam conflict, and the ensuing protests. Most importantly we get to meet each oneof the eight (nine) burglars. Their journeys coalesce into a cohesive sample of the people who made up the counter culture of the 1960s-1970s. Like a drop of the ocean seen under a microscope, the burglars were all vastly different with his or her own motivations. All of this background is essential to understand the justification of this major act of civil disobedience.
There is so much meat to this book! Medsgar lays out for us the lead up to the crime, the crime itself, and the aftermath. (Spoiler alert, J. Edgar loses his mind.) Growing from the seed of a single event, the burglary of an FBI office in Media, Pennsylvania, this book blooms with detail and context.
I found myself very inspired by this book. As a child I was often told that i was a Flower Child at heart, and at that time I did not understand. (Nowadays, I would say I'm a Pastel Goth Flower Child, thank you very much!) This book has me adding "All the President's Men" to my TBR pile, because Watergate followed Media by a year and some change. Also, because Medsgar gives so much context, I feel that AtPM will be easier for me to comprehend.
As I am sure you've guessed by now, Dear Reader, I have been fascinated. That alone meant it was a book you needed to know about. I enjoyed this book on Audible, and Bronson Pinchot's narration is top notch. Plus, in the audio we getbto hear from the 9th member of the Media gang who hid herself so very well she did not show up in the initial text. I really cannot reccomend this story highly enough
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 5/5
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