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Inventing the Pinkertons; or, Spies, Sleuths, Mercenaries, and Thugs
Between 1865 and 1937, Pinkerton’s National Detective Agency was at the center of countless conflicts between capital and labor, bandits and railroads, and strikers and state power. Some believed that the detectives were protecting society from dangerous criminal conspiracies; others thought that armed Pinkertons were capital’s tool to crush worker dissent. Yet the image of the Pinkerton detective also inspired romantic and sensationalist novels, reflected shifting ideals of Victorian manhood, and embodied a particular kind of rough frontier justice. Inventing the Pinkertons examines the evolution of the agency as a pivotal institution in the cultural history of American monopoly capitalism. Historian S. Paul O’Hara intertwines political, social, and cultural history to reveal how Scottish-born founder Allan Pinkerton insinuated his way to power and influence as a purveyor of valuable (and often wildly wrong) intelligence in the Union cause. During Reconstruction, Pinkerton turned his agents into icons of law and order in the Wild West. Finally, he transformed his firm into a for-rent private army in the war of industry against labor. Having begun life as peddlers of information and guardians of mail bags, the Pinkertons became armed mercenaries, protecting scabs and corporate property from angry strikers. 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, Inventing the Pinkertons is a gripping look at how the histories of American capitalism, industrial folklore, and the nation-state converged.
216 pages, Kindle Edition
First published September 1, 2016
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Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
March 25, 2019
While I enjoyed this book, it was hard to ignore that it very much focused on the association at the time of the Pinkertons with masculinity — that is to say, references to female detectives were very noticeably absent. There are a few references to Kate Warne and that’s about all you get.
An example: although O’Hara covers briefly the ways in which Allan’s sons fundamentally reshaped and redirected the business after his death, he fails to mention that they put an end to hiring female detectives. A reference to this could easily have been managed when the hiring of female agents in the first place was unique and groundbreaking, and revoking this practice was a clear signal that the business was moving in a direction away from Allan Pinkerton’s vision.
Don’t get me wrong — this is a very thorough book and I learned a lot. But it is by no means the complete, detailed history the book promises to be. To gloss over the contributions of women to the Pinkertons leaves it feeling incomplete and the lack of recognition has left me feeling somewhat dissatisfied.
An example: although O’Hara covers briefly the ways in which Allan’s sons fundamentally reshaped and redirected the business after his death, he fails to mention that they put an end to hiring female detectives. A reference to this could easily have been managed when the hiring of female agents in the first place was unique and groundbreaking, and revoking this practice was a clear signal that the business was moving in a direction away from Allan Pinkerton’s vision.
Don’t get me wrong — this is a very thorough book and I learned a lot. But it is by no means the complete, detailed history the book promises to be. To gloss over the contributions of women to the Pinkertons leaves it feeling incomplete and the lack of recognition has left me feeling somewhat dissatisfied.
December 10, 2016
I enjoy hard-boiled detective fiction from the 20’s-50’s. This genre often features Pinkerton or Pinkerton-like operatives (e.g. Dashiell Hammett’s unnamed Continental Op), so this book caught me eye in my library’s new book display. It turns out that there is very little in the book about dogged detectives (hard-boiled, wisecracking, or otherwise). Rather, the author focuses on the public perception of the Pinkerton agency throughout its history.
O’Hara portrays the Pinkertons’ attempt to control their own mythos, battling against a reputation shaped by dime novels and the press. Their characterization as corporate mercenaries and thugs dominates most of the book with emphasis on their role in “capitalists vs. labor” disputes. The author seems to be trying to stay neutral, seldom offering a direct opinion on whose version of events is accurate. However, his treatment of accounts of individual investigative cases and methods as little more than Pinkerton propaganda gives the book a somewhat anti-Pinkerton slant.
Overall, I was a little disappointed that the author passed so lightly over the “sleuths” aspect of his title, but I enjoyed learning about this organization from a source other than Black Mask and Dime Detective.
O’Hara portrays the Pinkertons’ attempt to control their own mythos, battling against a reputation shaped by dime novels and the press. Their characterization as corporate mercenaries and thugs dominates most of the book with emphasis on their role in “capitalists vs. labor” disputes. The author seems to be trying to stay neutral, seldom offering a direct opinion on whose version of events is accurate. However, his treatment of accounts of individual investigative cases and methods as little more than Pinkerton propaganda gives the book a somewhat anti-Pinkerton slant.
Overall, I was a little disappointed that the author passed so lightly over the “sleuths” aspect of his title, but I enjoyed learning about this organization from a source other than Black Mask and Dime Detective.
September 16, 2023
Just learned these guys are still around? Wack
February 24, 2023
I honestly wanted a book on the facts. But as interesting as it was, the clear bias of the author kept interfering with it. It is, however, well researched.
November 6, 2016
The dime-novels of the Wild West would constantly use The Pinkerton Detective Agency not only as good guys, but more often than not, as the villain. These stories were full of adventure and daring-dos. Inventing The Pinkertons or Spies, Sleuths, Mercenaries, and Thugs manages to avoid most of that. This book is definitely well researched and written with a specific audience in mind. Unfortunately, I don’t think I’m the right audience. I love the excitement and the adventure that lies within history and I wasn’t able to dive into this book.
I believe my biggest issue that I had to work around was that unlike the FBI or any other service that has been written about, there is usually some figurehead that a story can be formed around. The creation of the agency and the history of Allan Pinkerton drives the first chapter and draws you into this man’s life and the myth that he wove around himself. All too quickly though it spins out to encompass the entire agency and it becomes a faceless mass with only a few characters to pin the motives of an entire force to. There were so many Pinkerton agents that the story could have followed, and I will certainly seek them out in the future for my own personal benefit, yet the book chooses to focus on the image of the Pinkertons.
The Pinkertons have always had a branding issue, to labor workers they are strikebreakers, and to desperadoes they can be just as bad as bounty hunters. They are heroes and villains all at the same time. It must be difficult to decide where they sit on the fence of justice or villainy, and I believe that S. Paul O’Hara does a valiant job trying to help his audience do so. Not being the right audience for this I instead finished the book and went and watched The Pinkertons on Netflix. I found O’Hara’s book too dry for my liking and without a clear bias in either direction (good vs bad.) Very well written and historically accurate I would recommend this to someone who is interested in that time frame and also the grey side of image and branding in the past.
I believe my biggest issue that I had to work around was that unlike the FBI or any other service that has been written about, there is usually some figurehead that a story can be formed around. The creation of the agency and the history of Allan Pinkerton drives the first chapter and draws you into this man’s life and the myth that he wove around himself. All too quickly though it spins out to encompass the entire agency and it becomes a faceless mass with only a few characters to pin the motives of an entire force to. There were so many Pinkerton agents that the story could have followed, and I will certainly seek them out in the future for my own personal benefit, yet the book chooses to focus on the image of the Pinkertons.
The Pinkertons have always had a branding issue, to labor workers they are strikebreakers, and to desperadoes they can be just as bad as bounty hunters. They are heroes and villains all at the same time. It must be difficult to decide where they sit on the fence of justice or villainy, and I believe that S. Paul O’Hara does a valiant job trying to help his audience do so. Not being the right audience for this I instead finished the book and went and watched The Pinkertons on Netflix. I found O’Hara’s book too dry for my liking and without a clear bias in either direction (good vs bad.) Very well written and historically accurate I would recommend this to someone who is interested in that time frame and also the grey side of image and branding in the past.
October 8, 2023
"I can hire one half of the working class to kill the other half."
— Jay Gould, railroad magnate and failed babysitter
I prefer my history to be breezier and filled with relatable anecdotes—people doing stupid or shitty things just like they do today—but this was an academic text written for an academic audience. It's successful in that regard, as I learned many things, mainly that the Pinkertons were violent swine hired by Capital to tear the guts out of Labor. It makes sense that this text eschewed popular storytelling, what with the untold pages already blown in hagiographic dime novels written by the Pinkertons themselves as "copaganda". But still, it was dry and felt like homework.
— Jay Gould, railroad magnate and failed babysitter
I prefer my history to be breezier and filled with relatable anecdotes—people doing stupid or shitty things just like they do today—but this was an academic text written for an academic audience. It's successful in that regard, as I learned many things, mainly that the Pinkertons were violent swine hired by Capital to tear the guts out of Labor. It makes sense that this text eschewed popular storytelling, what with the untold pages already blown in hagiographic dime novels written by the Pinkertons themselves as "copaganda". But still, it was dry and felt like homework.
June 30, 2017
Written by a history professor, this book is not as dry as one would expect. Deftly woven is the role of popular crime fiction from the works of Edgar Allen Poe through Dashiell Hammett into the story of the Pinkertons through Blackwater, that it becomes apparent how Allen Pinkerton's savvy exploitation of popular culture contributed to his financial success and infamy as he created, and solved, the problems worrisome to the Gilded Age industrialists. There are a lot of dates, places, and names as it is a history book. If you're a student of the times, this book should be in your library.
February 6, 2023
Pinkerton Detective Agency was a private police force that rich industrialists would hire to attack streakers and laborers. the ruling class had a private army to sic on misbehaving labor. the Pinkerton's public reputation got so bad the government decided that they should be the authoritative body to break strikes.
very interesting book on origins of American espionage and Gilded Age labor relations
very interesting book on origins of American espionage and Gilded Age labor relations
October 12, 2018
Chronicles the history of the Pinkerton Detective Agency, from its beginnings during the Civil War to its later transitions as a guard force. The topic itself is quite fascinating, but the author bores the subject down a bit. Not a bad read for those interested in the Pinkertons, but really wouldn't recommend it to anyone else.
December 21, 2016
My boss and I were wondering the other day what today's "private army for capital" might be. (You know, a little casual chit chat among archivists.) O'Hara points to Blackwater, but we think it might be drones & bots.
January 21, 2017
Corporate property protectors or thugs? Pinkerton men ran the gamut. Good book on Pinkerton's and their ways. Were they needed in the day? Did they truly get results? Were they just mercenaries for hire?
April 17, 2019
This is a great book if you are looking for a good history of the Pinkertons.
June 15, 2022
A valuable history of the Pinkerton's unfortunately written in academic style. There is much to appreciate in the scholarship but at times the value is hard to unearth.
December 7, 2025
Had to read this for a class and it just felt extremely repetitive. I knew I wasn't really going to be interested in this from the jump, but the book was just incredibly dense and hard to follow. I felt like if it was told more as a narrative and followed one consistent timeline it would have been more readable.
July 25, 2021
Surprising, twisting story with an amazing start of a life-story and a turn at the end.
This book traces the start of Allan Pinkerton’s immigrant life, his fight for the Union and progressive politics then using his relationship with Ohio’s Civil War General George McClellan to move from Chicago to Cincinnati that also moved forward his career. The jury is out on how much liberty Mr. Pinkerton used with facts or fiction to endear himself to President Lincoln and his administration, ‘guarding the newly elected president to his inaugural. History is not so fuzzy on how Pinkerton used his creative writing to make his operation seem better and more effective than facts would prove.
1886 Haymarket, counterfeiters, abolitionist, fighting for the Railroads and against striking miners, Molly Maguires, Workmen’s Benevolent Association (strike in January of 1775), Mark Twain (speaking of the sleuth’s “self-aggrandizement”), Hoking Valley strike (Ohio in 1886), Homestead strike, Western Federation of Miners (WFM in Wyoming, IWW (Wobblies), Jesse James, KKK, even Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid! It’s all packed in this book that reads quick and always interesting.
Allan Pinkerton came over from Scotland from a working family in 1819,first to Canada then to the US in 1842. He is an American hero in many ways, taking the side of the Union, winning a seat in the General Assembly as a reformer. He seemed to always view himself as a ‘free labor’ ideology and not agreeing that he was entering on the side of capital against labor. But it’s clear he was a tool of the emerging industrial order. Yet he claimed he was a worker “all my life.” The company took a bad turn during his life but when he died, his sons Robert and William lacked any working class background. Instead they were raised in an elite society, attending University of Notre Dame in a wealthy family. They moved the company to being a tool of big business, including GM by providing labor spies.
The author goes into great detail repeatedly, adding information even to those of us who are big readers of American history. He addresses how Andrew Carnegie reached a three year agreement with the Amalgamated Association in 1889 since he was more concerned about a fight over tariffs rather than workers. Yet his top lieutenant and rat, Henry Frick prepared for battle in June, 1892 creating a castle like fortress and bringing in the Pinkertons on barges, shooting – and killing. Even the business community questioned the killing of nine in the crowd along with three anti-labor thugs. Illinois Senator John Palmer said the Pinkerton men were “enemies of mankind” and 23 states followed the federal governments lead in forbidding companies like this one to serve the nation directly, although decades later our federal tax money was being shipped to this same company – and many others to protect federal properties.
Hara touches on the tools against the rights of workers beyond the Pinkertons – federal and local governments sending in the police/troops, the court injunction (cheaper than private spies), splitting labor and workers (immigrants versus those born here), company stores, starving strikes, and company unions. He also highlighted other firms that did amazing anti-worker damage including Bergoff Brothers, Wadell (that supposedly had 40,000 armed men at one point to turn against working people), and Baldwin Felts (used in the Ludlow Massacre of 1880 and the Battle of Blair Mountain (highlighted in the moving movie, Matewan).
The twist at the end was how Senator Robert LaFollette pulled in the grandson of the owner, who had been a stockbroker but also had a role in the company, to question him on his company’s anti-labor activities. It was then they learned of GM spending nearly a half million to buy labor spies to fight the UAW, including in the famous Toledo strike.
This book traces the start of Allan Pinkerton’s immigrant life, his fight for the Union and progressive politics then using his relationship with Ohio’s Civil War General George McClellan to move from Chicago to Cincinnati that also moved forward his career. The jury is out on how much liberty Mr. Pinkerton used with facts or fiction to endear himself to President Lincoln and his administration, ‘guarding the newly elected president to his inaugural. History is not so fuzzy on how Pinkerton used his creative writing to make his operation seem better and more effective than facts would prove.
1886 Haymarket, counterfeiters, abolitionist, fighting for the Railroads and against striking miners, Molly Maguires, Workmen’s Benevolent Association (strike in January of 1775), Mark Twain (speaking of the sleuth’s “self-aggrandizement”), Hoking Valley strike (Ohio in 1886), Homestead strike, Western Federation of Miners (WFM in Wyoming, IWW (Wobblies), Jesse James, KKK, even Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid! It’s all packed in this book that reads quick and always interesting.
Allan Pinkerton came over from Scotland from a working family in 1819,first to Canada then to the US in 1842. He is an American hero in many ways, taking the side of the Union, winning a seat in the General Assembly as a reformer. He seemed to always view himself as a ‘free labor’ ideology and not agreeing that he was entering on the side of capital against labor. But it’s clear he was a tool of the emerging industrial order. Yet he claimed he was a worker “all my life.” The company took a bad turn during his life but when he died, his sons Robert and William lacked any working class background. Instead they were raised in an elite society, attending University of Notre Dame in a wealthy family. They moved the company to being a tool of big business, including GM by providing labor spies.
The author goes into great detail repeatedly, adding information even to those of us who are big readers of American history. He addresses how Andrew Carnegie reached a three year agreement with the Amalgamated Association in 1889 since he was more concerned about a fight over tariffs rather than workers. Yet his top lieutenant and rat, Henry Frick prepared for battle in June, 1892 creating a castle like fortress and bringing in the Pinkertons on barges, shooting – and killing. Even the business community questioned the killing of nine in the crowd along with three anti-labor thugs. Illinois Senator John Palmer said the Pinkerton men were “enemies of mankind” and 23 states followed the federal governments lead in forbidding companies like this one to serve the nation directly, although decades later our federal tax money was being shipped to this same company – and many others to protect federal properties.
Hara touches on the tools against the rights of workers beyond the Pinkertons – federal and local governments sending in the police/troops, the court injunction (cheaper than private spies), splitting labor and workers (immigrants versus those born here), company stores, starving strikes, and company unions. He also highlighted other firms that did amazing anti-worker damage including Bergoff Brothers, Wadell (that supposedly had 40,000 armed men at one point to turn against working people), and Baldwin Felts (used in the Ludlow Massacre of 1880 and the Battle of Blair Mountain (highlighted in the moving movie, Matewan).
The twist at the end was how Senator Robert LaFollette pulled in the grandson of the owner, who had been a stockbroker but also had a role in the company, to question him on his company’s anti-labor activities. It was then they learned of GM spending nearly a half million to buy labor spies to fight the UAW, including in the famous Toledo strike.
October 19, 2020
Non-fiction books can be kind of a crapshoot, I think. You never really know if you're going to get a thorough retelling of events or a summary. You assume, or at least I do, that bias will creep in some way, at some point. There's a fear that it'll be too academic.
This book was everything I hoped it would be, and more. It was the perfect mix of exciting Pinkerton cases and the history of the Pinkerton agency as a whole. It was fascinating to see what Pinkerton started out as and what they eventually became, how power corrupts, how the public's view of Pinkertons changed over time.
This book was everything I hoped it would be, and more. It was the perfect mix of exciting Pinkerton cases and the history of the Pinkerton agency as a whole. It was fascinating to see what Pinkerton started out as and what they eventually became, how power corrupts, how the public's view of Pinkertons changed over time.
February 1, 2017
Fascinating subject. Too bad the writing is so dry. It tries to be a popular account, but it's really a historian's study. A bit more editing would reduce repetition and keep it moving.
Still, it really puts the Pinkertons in historical context. They'd be a great subject of a ~3 season TV show. One part Lone Ranger, one part Breaking Bad, one part Mad Men.
Still, it really puts the Pinkertons in historical context. They'd be a great subject of a ~3 season TV show. One part Lone Ranger, one part Breaking Bad, one part Mad Men.
January 13, 2017
Having very little knowledge of the Pinkerton agency prior to reading this, I found it very educational. The author did an excellent job of providing societal context surrounding the company's evolution and its deteriorating public image
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