Customer Reviews

Allan Pinkerton: The First Private Eye

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Pinkerton Biography

The story of Allan Pinkerton, a poor Scottish immigrant and former working-class radical who rose through the ranks of society to become the protector and confidant of presidents and tycoons is a quintessential American story that deserves such a thorough telling. This book was a fascinating read, and left me wishing that the author had delved more into the numerous early cases that were only hinted at in the text.

The only serious criticism of this biography is the author appears to have gotten a little too close to his subject, which in several points has clouded his objectivity. This is apparent in the book's tendency to rush to Pinkerton's defense, particularly regarding the handling of the Molly Maguires and other labor disturbances of the late 19th century. A sweeping condemnation of the labor activists as "terrorists," or stressing the fact that they greatly outnumbered the Pinkerton operatives during violent strikes, are intended to make Pinkerton and his agents "the good guys" in the eyes of readers. This stance is questionable, however, considering the book's general lack of background information on the U.S. labor situation at this time. The author also neglects to explore how Pinkerton, a well-known Glasgow labor radical in his own youth, so readily sided with "other side" -- the titans of American industry -- later on in life.

But overall this book is a good read and well-researched, especially the chapters concerning Pinkerton's early life in Scotland and his association with President Lincoln during the Civil War.

I had always heard of the Pinkertons or Pinkerton Detective Agency, but had never really thought about who this "Pinkerton" might be. James Mackay's Alan Pinkerton: The First Private Eye is a useful biography of both the man and the firm. In his introduction, Mackay makes clear that his most original scholarship - and of which he is most proud - is in tracing Pinkerton to his youth in Scotland as a Chartist leader. Unfortunately, this is the dullest part of the book, I think because Mackay is focused wholly on doing scholarship rather than telling a story. Once his subject moves to America, however, Mackay's book gains in interest and becomes an interesting read. Here, he shows how Pinkerton, by trade a cooper, essentially stumbled onto his career as investigator through his extreme powers of observation and sheer doggedness. Though these attributes, his honesty and business acumen, Pinkerton built a business which remains in existence today. A particularly interesting section of this book deals with Pinkerton's actions during the Civil War, and the allegations that he had become a puppet of General McLellan and disloyal to Lincoln. Mackay explores and justifies Pinkerton's loyalty to "Little Mac", but argues - convincingly for me - that he did not stray from the Union (In the process Mackay argues that McLellan has been unfairly maligned and was a "great" general; this argument, however, is undeveloped, and perhaps will form another book). This is a useful and interesting book for readers interested in real-life "private eyes" and the Civil War.

Mackay is as talanted a literary detective as Allan Pinkerton was as a criminal detective, written in a clear style that's a pleasure to read. It's a well balanced account, explaining the character's actions in the context of the times.
Mackay's first surprise is that Allan Pinkerton wasn't born when most biographers say he was. From there he goes on to uncover the truth about Pinkerton's early career in Scotland, and the truth about a 'supposed' assasination plot against Lincoln before he took office. (The plot was independently confirmed by a political enemy of Pinkerton who had no motive to make Pinkerton look good--which convinced Lincoln the plot was real, and to follow Pinkerton's suggestions to foil it. Political enemies of Lincoln denied the existence of the plot to make Lincoln out to be a coward.) Before he finishes the Civil War period, Mackay has 'rehabilited' the often pilloried Union general McClellan (whom Pinkerton worked for) and divulged startling information uncovered in 1967 about the plot to assasinate Lincoln. This book is outstanding, a definite 'keeper'.

This biography of the inventor of the private investigation industry is not only a thrilling look at a fascinating man, it is also a fresh perspective on a slice of American history. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in mystery fiction or detective novels, as well as anyone who is looking for a history book that isn't boring. While it may well be a bit biased, the presentation is thought-provoking and makes me want to research the period of the late Civil War/early Reconstruction more thoroughly.
Better than most fiction I've encountered lately, and definitely an overlooked gem.

This books encompasses all of Allan's PI's work. I had an enjoyable time reading it. It is a fasination subjet for me. I am considering of changing careers and going into the PI business.

As one who is both a American history buff and a lover of mystery, Private
Eye novels- I was very drawn to this book.

I am not familiar with the author James MacKay- he is very deep in his
research and writing.

If you can get through the first 2 chapters of the book, You'll find a
very interesting novel.

This covers Pinkerton's activities to my satisfaction. He was an Irish immigrant and was into the reform movement against the English government when he moved to the U.S. With this kind of background you'd think he would understand the reform movements regarding labor in the U.S. but both he and his agency got the reputation of being reactionary in favor of management. This book explains the complexities of his positions in regard to this,whether the reader buys the authors interpretations of Pinkertons' motives or not ;that is up to their judgement and research. The chapters on the Molly Maquires was great.The Mollies were definitely not "nice guys".
Pinkerton when he finally settled in Chicago in the 1840's got his start in the limelight because he received the contract to guard the Chicago to Cairo,Illinois railroad. The railroad's president at the time was George McClellan who later became the head of the Army of the Potomac. When General McClellan needed to find someone to manage military intelligence he made his best choice.Since there was no US intelligence service at the time and alot of the smaller police forces were incompetent or badly corrupt,McClellan relied on Pinkerton and his operatives. The big question was-Did Pinkerton do a good job in regard to information and espionage work for the Army of the Potomac.Here the author states his case in favor of Pinkerton and claims that Alan was slandered after the war by 2 sources. There seemed in the book to be a big conflict between McClellan,Pinkerton on one side and Secretary of War Stanton. The animosity really spills over even into politics after the war and goes so far that Pinkerton claimed Stanton had a role in the Lincoln assasination.
Pinkerton goes so far to as to imply strongly that Lincoln was Stanton's stooge according to this book! It is an interesting theory I was unaware of before but not totally surprised. The Pinkertons' were an expensive agency to hire and some train lines would put up with some with some thefts because they weren't as financially detrimental as hiring the Pinkertons could be-(cha-chinga). The Pinkertons were able to break up some white collar crime rings but from the book it appears they were mainly used by management because they could pay for the service. So there probably was a tendency to overlook "white collar crime" or at least not investigate it too thoroughly. The Pinkertons specialized in high profile "blue collar" crimes like train robbers etc.
Pinkerton lived the life of extreme danger and asked as much of his workers.There has always been a big conflict between the government controlled public police sector and the private sector. What works better uniformed regulations or individual initiative and genius(as some but not all insist that Pinkerton had in abundance).Matbe a little or alot of both? In short a great book and very readable.(short too)

This book is filled with easily caught and corrected minor errors. Example; General McClellan's campaign in West Virginia in 1861, before there was a West Virginia. Also there is obvious bias in much of the description. While it may be a useful source for research, each critical fact should be checked with other sources for veracity,

Allan Pinkerton lived a very colorful life, but unfortunately "Allan Pinkerton: The First Private Eye" does not make for an interesting read. The author (Mackay) takes many tangents. The first two chapters should have been condensed to about 3-pages. These two chapter paints the picture of Pinkerton as a working class man, one who fights for labor. This persona is then contrasted with his eventual involvement in bringing down the Molly Macguires. The problem is that the first two chapters rarely mention Pinkerton and focuses primarily of the labor movement in Scotland. Again, his is not compelling reading.

Another problem is Mackay's enormous bias. In particular, is the handling of former Secretary of War Stanton. Mackay openly accuses Stanton of being the mastermind behind the assignation of Abraham Lincoln. Stanton is described as the villain who plotted to overthrow Lincoln, taint Pinkerton, and boot McClellan from command. I am sure that there is some truth behind the claims of a rift between McClellan and Stanton, but the level of conspiracy that is implied by Mackay is pure fantasy.

Mackay hits his mark on thechapters regarding the civil which are the book's high-mark. The Pinkerton agency provided secret agents to the Union at great personal risk. Unfortunately, more of the book did not have this level of detail of actual operations. In truth, with the exception of the Civil War and the Molly Macguires very little detail is given on cases.

Mackay's writes in an academic voice that requires sensationalism to maintain the readers interest. Unfortunately, it just does not work... the bias hurts the legitimate research while losing the readers interest.

Final Verdict - Both biased and dull...

2 stars

I was looking forward to reading what appeared to be a well written biography of Allan Pinkerton. On the surface, it is well written and entertaining. Unfortunately, there are questionable details reported through out the book. As a historian myself, I know some of the minor details regarding people in the Civil War years are wrong. Other facts are very questionable, and not footnoted, so we don't know his source. One example of this is Mackay's claim that a woman dressed up like a Confederate Solider was in fact Pinkerton Spy Hattie Lawton. There is nothing in the writings of the clerk who identified the soldier as a woman that suggest she was Lawton, and this fact is conveniently not footnoted. Another, more obvious error was a photo that was labeled as the Pinkerton headquarters in Chicago - the photo in question is actually of the New York branch. Errors happen, but should not happen so often.