Inventing the Pinkertons or, Spies, sleuths, mercenaries, and thugs: being a story of the nation's most famous (and infamous) detective agency

Description

"O'Hara argues that American capitalists used the Pinkertons to enforce new structures of economic and political order. Yet the infamy of the Pinkerton agent also gave critics and working communities a villain against which to frame their resistance to the new industrial order. Ultimately, [this book examines] how the histories of American capitalism, industrial folklore, and the nation-state converged"--;Introduction. Pinkerton's National Detective Agency, or heroes and villains of the Gilded Age -- Chapter one. In which Allan Pinkerton created his agency -- Chapter two. In which Pinkerton men become the antiheroes of the middle west -- Chapter three. In which Pinkerton agents infiltrate secret societies -- Chapter four. In which the Pinks serve as a private army for capital -- Chapter five. In which Pinkerton myrmidons invade Homestead -- Chapter six. In which the disgrace of Pinkertonism is subjected to public scrutiny -- Chapter seven. In which the frontier closes and Pinkerton practices are exposed -- Chapter eight. In which the modern state takes on the duties of the Pinkerton agency -- Conclusion. Pinkerton's Inc.