The history of the FBI is multidimensional and episodic. It is easy to see the organization oscillating between times of flamboyant excesses contravening civil rights and civil liberties and withdrawals into professional criminalistics and technical criminology. However, those two stereotypes sometimes played out simultaneously. Also, the Bureau has gone through several reorganizations. The formal structure of the central office in Washington changed. More or less control was given to or taken from field offices. Those changes took place in parallel with the other episodes.
Furthermore, the FBI is in and of American society. During Prohibition, agents did not drink – or at least they were officially forbidden from doing so. Diversity has been slow within the overall structure. However, even critics acknowledged that in training at Quantico race and gender were as unimportant as religion: proficiency and dedication were the only benchmarks. That dichotomy could describe America, generally.
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