A deeply researched account of the life and legacy of the man who defined the profession of private eye
Allan Pinkerton, the world's most famous private detective, has been an enduring source of fascination since the nineteenth century. But the details of his impact, business empire, and private life have been incomplete.
Drawing on overlooked primary sources, Rhodri Jeffreys-Jones provides an authoritative account of the man and the Pinkerton National Detective Agency (PNDA). It is the story of how PNDA's founder and its successive generations of heirs put it at the center of American history for decades. A small sampling of Pinkerton's activities includes providing intelligence in the Civil War, pursuing high-profile outlaws like Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, and protecting scabs in the Homestead lockout, for which they became notorious. The book continues telling PNDA's history into the twentieth century.
General readers as well as scholars of American history will be fascinated by this rich new portrait of Pinkerton's accomplishments, controversies, and contradictions.
Table of Contents
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. The Gorbals Man
2. The Revolutionary
3. Escape to America
4. Pinkerton & Co.
5. The Baltimore Plot to Assassinate Lincoln
6. A Secret Service
7. The Secret Service
8. Labor Violence a New Source of Income
9. McParland Tilts at the Molly Maguires
10. Inventing Anti-Communism
11. Inventing Private Detection
12. Jesse James as Robin Hood
13. The Death of the Founder
14. Odyssey of the Son
15. Pinkertons in the Haymarket Trial
16. The Homestead Lockout and the End of Legitimacy
17. Anti-Pinkerton Legislation
18. Sundance and the Setting of the Western Sun
19. The Trial of the Wobblies
20. The Verdict
21. The BofI: Challenge and Succession
22. Private Rivals
23. Of Harvard and Hammett
24. The LaFollette Inquiry
25. A Corporate Era
26. Who Was the Greatest Detective of Them All?
Conclusion
List of Primary Source Archives and of Abbreviations Used in the Notes
Notes
Bibliography
Index
About the Author
Reviews
"More than just a biography, this engaging book brings Gilded Age history to life and offers a nuanced analysis of the complicated legacy of the Pinkertons. Sherlock Holmes may have been an idealized version of Allan Pinkerton, but the real story—warts and all—is just as fascinating."—Katherine Unterman, associate professor of history, Texas A&M University
"Jeffreys-Jones offers a strikingly original portrait of Allan Pinkerton, the founder of America's first national detective agency, combined with a compelling explanation of Pinkertonism as a distinctively American style of surveillance. In a series of vivid episodes, he provides powerful insights into labor history, the conspiratorial imagination, and the privatization of security in the United States."—Kevin Kenny, Glucksman Professor of History, New York University, author, Making Sense of the Molly Maguires
"Based on wide-ranging research, this refreshing appraisal of the myths and stories that surround Pinkerton and his agency challenges much of what has been accepted in previous studies, from Allan Pinkerton's part in the radicalism of Glasgow through to the violent anti-labor tactics of three later generations of Pinkertons."—W. Hamish Fraser, professor emeritus, University of Strathclyde
"More than a biography of Allan Pinkerton, Jeffreys-Jones's meticulously researched book shows how the legendary detective and his espionage empire helped fuel the growth of the private security state. Not just a fun read, but a story with implications for our own time."—Kathryn Olmsted, author, Real Enemies: Conspiracy Theories and American Democracy
About the Author
Rhodri Jeffreys-Jones is the author or editor of nearly twenty books, including The Nazi Spy Ring in America (GUP 2020) and A Question of Standing: The History of the CIA (2022).
