In 1908, President Theodore Roosevelt established the Bureau of Investigation, later renamed the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in 1935. When J. Edgar Hoover assumed directorship of the organisation, he used his public relations perspicacity to oversee the careful construction of accounts from hired writers (see Figure 8). During his forty-eight years as Director, Hoover required writers to obtain his approval for access to the FBI's internal files. Subsequently, the few writers that dared to craft negative depictions of the Bureau relied solely on outside information gleaned primarily from embittered former agents and Congress; they could not access any of the Bureau's official information. Only after Hoover's death and upon the passage of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) did FBI scholarship gradually gain objectivity. In the 1970s, the Bureau began declassifying its internal files after the American public demanded transparency from federal law enforcement and intelligence communities following the discovery of such scandals as COINTELPRO, Operation CHAOS and Watergate. In 1974, historians gained access to FBI files through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). Only then did historians have the sources needed to construct critical, revisionist histories of the FBI. Newly available sources deepened historical understandings of the Bureau and shifted the narrative away from the image of one-dimensional, heroic ‘G-men’ braving danger on behalf of their impeccable Director, Hoover, towards nuanced depictions of an organisation struggling to maintain order and security amid challenges such as the Cold War, racism and postmodernism.