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The In 1850, Allan Pinkerton founded a detective agency that would grow into the Pinkerton's National Detective Agency was . Pinkerton's agency is easily the most famous and infamous security guard and detective agency in United States history. Pinkerton originally created the agency to help railroad companies to control investigate their employees by Allan Pinkertonand catch train robbers. After the Civil War the role But over time, the Pinkertons played in America grew dramatically. They served as Abraham Lincoln's personal security during developed an intimate relationship with the Civil War, were contracted by the Department of Justice Federal to investigate and help prosecute anyone who violated federal law in the 1870s, were used to suppress labor government and they even tracked down outlaws such as Jesse James, Butch Cassidy and these partnerships grew the Sundance KidPinkertons' role increased dramatically.
SThis relationship started after the Pinkertons provided personal security to Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War. Paul O'Hara's new book <i>Inventing By the 1870s, the Pinkertons; or, Spies, Sleuths, Mercenariesinvestigated and hunted down people (including outlaws such as Jesse James, Butch Cassidy and Thugs</i> published by [https://www.press.jhu.edu/ John Hopkins University Press] attempts to separate the myth from reality Sundance Kid) who stole railroad and paint bank money on behalf railroad and express companies with the real picture approval of the Department of Justice. The Pinkertons are probably most famous private detective agency notorious for their role in suppressing labor in United States history. JHU Press states O'Hara explains who "American capitalists used the Pinkertons to enforce new structures last twenty five years of economic and political order." Professor Maury Klein had said that the book not only explains"the convoluted tale" of the Pinkertons, but reads "like a detective novel19th Century."
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[[File:Pinkertons.jpg|thumbnail|300px|left|<i>Inventing the Pinkertons</i> by S. Paul O'Hara]]
S. Paul O'Hara's new book <i>[https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1421420562/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1421420562&linkCode=as2&tag=dailyh0c-20&linkId=7319f5ed3bf6fb980909977ac68f7ddc Inventing the Pinkertons; or, Spies, Sleuths, Mercenaries, and Thugs]</i> published by [https://www.press.jhu.edu/ John Hopkins University Press] attempts to separate the myth from reality and paint the real picture of the most famous private detective agency in United States history. JHU Press states O'Hara explains who "American capitalists used the Pinkertons to enforce new structures of economic and political order." Professor Maury Klein had said that the book not only explains how "the convoluted tale" of the Pinkertons, but reads "like a detective novel." S. Paul O'Hara is an associate professor at Xavier University and he also the author of <i>[https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0253222885/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0253222885&linkCode=as2&tag=dailyh0c-20&linkId=7d543bdc054e0d772b0f0d024c4d198f Gary: The Most American of All American Cities]</i>.
Here is out interview with Professor O'Hara.
<b>The Pinkertons had a fearsome reputation and were seen as extremely competent in the 19th Century. Was that an accurate description of the company?</b>
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Reputation was tremendously important to Allan Pinkerton and his agency, but the firm’s reputation was also complex and contradictory. The meaning of the agency was layered in myth and counter-myth, narrative and counter-narrative. Allan Pinkerton crafted his agency’s reputation upon new ideals of professional and moral detectives capable of delving into the depths of the criminal underworld. For certain audiences, then, the Pinkerton’s did have a well-deserved reputation as highly competent and professional lawmen. However fans of Jesse James or defenders of the Molly Maguires countered with infamous tales of hired mercenaries doing the railroad or mining companies’ dirty work. This reputation was less about competency than ruthlessness, recklessness, and fearsomeness. Even amongst businessmen, some saw the Pinkertons as the armed men holding back the tides of anarchy, while others saw reckless thugs who exacerbated conflicts and spurred public outrage. Still others, especially the publishers of dime novel fantasies, portrayed the Pinkertons as incompetent fools, the almost comedic foils for the novel’s heroes. As for accuracy, each of these versions could, depending upon the location, the perspective and the teller of the tale, be an accurate description of the agency.
It is relatively short, fairly accessible, and full of self-invented and self-aggrandizing characters such as Allan Pinkerton, Jesse James, Charlie Siringo, Tom Horn, Butch Cassidy, James McParlan, Arthur Conan Doyle, Jack Kehoe, Albert Parsons, Big Bill Haywood, Clarence Darrow, Kate Warne, and others. I think that if someone were looking to cover the Gilded Age for a US survey, this book, because of the scope of the Pinkerton agency, covers a lot of different areas. Otherwise, I think classes that want to analyze the cultures of capitalism and labor, the constructed tales of the west, the making of folklore and narrative, the evolution of crime and criminality, or the language of immigration and order will find something useful and interesting within these pages.
[[Category:Interviews]][[Category:United States History]][[Category:Gilded Age]][[Category:Progressive Era]][[Category:Civil War]]
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