If you are looking for details of major events and controversies, then I am afraid you will be disappointed. The book is mostly a collection of colorful stories (with names omitted)that illustrate the FBN's methods and successes, as Anslinger saw them. He does give some attention to the Lepke-Katzenberg network, which was a big FBN success. He does not discuss Hoover at all, really; Anslinger was too smart a bureaucrat to publish his disagreements with the FBI.

The book is well-written, though, and the best thing about it is that Anslinger's personality and attitudes come through very strongly. He gives some details about his younger days and his early encounters with dope and Italian mobs in his native Pennsylvania, and you see why he hated gangsters and dope smugglers so much. He was a very hard, tough man, and that is evident in his book.

I know Anslinger gets a terrible press from today's hipsters, but he was one of the mob's most dangerous enemies for 30 years and he made cases against some important bosses. He really deserves a full, modern biography, and I am amazed that no one has written one.