Very well-researched and well-written, this book provides anexcellent discussion of the activities of federal surveillance agenciesin the Pittsburgh mill district (western Pennsylvania, northern WestVirginia, and eastern Ohio). However, Seeing Reds is neitherabout surveillance agencies nor the Pittsburgh Left per se, but ratherabout their intersection: the “federal government's effort todefine, understand, and suppress leftists” during the period ofWorld War One. It begins with an excellent survey of the early historyof federal surveillance agencies, including the Bureau of Investigation(BI), the Office of Naval Intelligence, the Military IntelligenceDivision, and the American Protective League. McCormick pays specialattention to the BI, the original name of the Federal Bureau ofInvestigation. He looks closely at four men who, as special agents inthe Pittsburgh Field Office, played a particularly important part in hisstory. Each had a background in either police and/or privateinvestigative work or a college degree and/or legal training.