Customer Reviews

Jesse James: Last Rebel of the Civil War

5 star:		(41)
4 star:		(14)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

I have just finished a careful reading of this book, and it is one of the most remarkable books on American history I have ever read. Instead of being simply a compilation of facts and speculations about someone who lived underground for his entire life, this beautifully written book is a sweeping story of how the United States went through the Civil War and the years that followed. The author knits together the lives of one remarkable person after another, including Jesse and Frank James, their larger-than-life mother, Zerelda, the outlaws' friends and enemies (such as John Edwards and Allan Pinkerton), together with the story of the community the James family belonged to, as it was torn apart during the war. The most astonishing thing this book reveals is how important Jesse James was in the politics of his times, and how he understood that and tried to use his fame to promote the Confederate cause.

I frankly don't understand the angry reviews that some have posted on Amazon. This is a very careful, thoughtful book, with almost 100 pages of endnotes (and bibliography) that explain the author's reasoning as well as sources. Clearly he's telling us what he thinks, but he never goes overboard. So who gets to decide what an "error" is? Were they videotaping robberies, so we know exactly what happened? Some of the critics seem to think they have special, secret knowledge. One thing that is especially silly is that the people who are attacking Stiles's book go on and on about the fact that the endnotes mention Michael Bellesiles, a historian who is now the subject of an academic investigation. I was curious, and I checked: I found only a couple of mentions of Bellesiles in the notes, and they say things like, "Bellesiles's work has come under harsh criticism." One of the Amazon reviewers says things about Stiles's book that just aren't true (claiming that Stiles says there were few guns in Missouri before the Civil War, and only one man in three had a gun--none of that's in here). Then again, one man said he was basing his comments on a pre-publication proof, which is not the same thing as the actual book, and so the critics may have been too lazy to read the real thing.

This is a book worth reading. It is wonderful. I have never read a biography like it.

I loved this book. I have had a fascination with the Civil War in Missouri, and Jesse James, for many years, and I have to say that this is far and away the best thing ever written on either topic.

The book is brilliantly written, but it is also packed with new insights and new reseach. For example, the author uses probate records and newly discovered letters from Watkins Mill State Park to put new light on Jesse and Frank's father, Robert James, and on the hardships faced by Zerelda, his widow, after he died in the Gold Rush. Stiles does something that no one else has done before when he looks at the family's slaves, trying to understand their lives and how slaveowning made the James and Samuel family what it was. And the portrait of the Civil War in Missouri is genius. Stiles shows us that there was a lot more going on that simply Missourians fighting invading Kansans. He uses new sources, including a report by the Missouri state legislature and reports by the provost marshals (including some reports missed by everyone else who has written about Jesse James) to show how much the war there was a real neighbor-against-neighbor struggle that the James boys plunged into wholeheartedly. I could go on and on about the new insights Stiles has, such as the way he explains the differences between the various state militia forces as no one else has. When he gets to Jesse's bandit years, he uses governors' papers in the Missouri State Archives to show that the first bank the bandits robbed, in Liberty, was owned by the Radical Republican officials of Clay County where Jesse lived. Stiles explains something that I never realized: The bandits were really robbing express companies when they robbed trains, so the notion that they were Robin Hoods punching the big bad railroad companies in the nose is nonsense. He explains Jesse's letters to the press like no one else ever has, showing just how political a fellow he was. I could go on for much longer. Best of all, this book is beautifully written. The author doesn't force us to slog through every possibility when it comes to each robbery. He paints a portrait, then uses his footnotes to explain his reasoning. His reasoning is consistently sound--he's vivid, but he's not just making stuff up.

Don't be fooled by any bad customer reviews. If you didn't know, there are a lot of Jesse James buffs who are glued to one version of his life, and don't like a really fresh, well-written account of his life by someone outside their club. The leading historians of Missouri and Western outlaws (including William Parrish, Christopher Phillips, and Richard Maxwell Brown) looked over the book before it was published, and they gave it a big thumbs up, as have such historians as James McPherson. This book is reseached like a doctoral dissertation, but it is written like a novel--not because the author is making it up, but because it is simply well-written.

After a century of glorification and hero-worship idolatry, fuelled by hollywood's total lack of interest in true history in favor of romantic swashbuckle and garbage, the Jesse James myth has finally been exposed for what it is: nonsense, masking the ruthless, murderous career of a racist and terrorist.
T. J. Stiles has come into Missouri and painstakingly researched the real motives and events in the life of Jesse James. With a great, readable style and the dedication to facts of a professional historian, without bias, Mr. Stiles unmasks our modern 'robin hood' and exposes Jesse as the politically motivated arch-villain that he was.
I loved his previous 'In Their Own Words' series, but Mr. Stiles has taken a great leap with this book to the foremost ranks of
American historians. We need more Stiles!

T. J. Stiles has written an important and challenging new biography of Jesse James, a book that I believe will be the definitive biography of James for a long time to come. Although a short review here cannot do the book justice, Stiles approaches the Missouri bandit in a different manner from previous biographers, including Ted Yeatman who wrote an excellent and detailed biography of both James brothers. While Yeatman's book will satisfy those who want to know every detail of the James brothers careers, Stiles is a more interpretive history, placing Jesse James squarely within the era in which he lived, and assessing his role as an American legend.

Stiles places Jesse James in historical context like no one else has before, making a strong case for James as an integral part of the post-Civil War fight against Reconstruction in deeply divided Missouri. This is indicated by the title of the book. He eschews comparisons of James with bandits like Butch Cassidy and other western outlaws, who had no social program or cause other than enriching themselves. James was a precursor of the modern terrorist, in Stiles' analysis, a political partisan engaged in manipulating the media and carrying out lawless acts while gaining maximum publicity for his white supremacist cause.

For those who place Jesse James in the context of the Old West, as an outlaw on the lawless frontier, Stiles persuasively argues James never looked west, always south, and saw himself as part of the traditional slave-holding class of southern farmers, the class from which he hailed.

This is a work of professional history, and not a book for buffs. If you want to know the minutae of every robbery, Yeatman's will be more satisfying. The book is amply footnoted, and its economic and banking analysis are heavy going at times, but the book is always challenging. There are conclusions Stiles draws that I can't always support, but there is no doubt that the author did what a reader hopes when reading a new interpretation- he challenged my thinking on several fronts.

Well worth reading, and I imagine this book will cause much discussion and debate.

As a historian of the Civil War era, with a special interest in the border states, I have to state that this is a truly superb work, combining groundbreaking scholarship with breathtakingly good writing. If the average assistant professor of history made simply one of the many fresh interpretations and insights that Stiles makes in this remarkable book, he or she would certainly gain tenure. As it is, Stiles makes seemingly dozens, including new insights on the way the border ruffians polarized politics in Missouri before the Civil War, the beginnings of the guerrilla war there and the efforts by both sides to drive out civilians in order to undercut the other side's base of support, the exact transition of the Confederate bushwhackers into bandits during the turmoil of 1866, and the explicitly political (not economic) grievances captured in the outlaws' train robberies. Stiles also makes the definitive assessment of the historical thesis of "social banditry" as it applies to Jesse James.

This is not to say that this book is tedious reading. It is a swift-moving account, one that vividly captures the characters and times. Unfortunately, some customer reviewers have seen fit to use the excellent writing to attack this book, calling it fiction, not history. There is no rational basis for this. As Larry McMurtry noted in a long review in The New Republic, Stiles is extremely careful, at times even cautious, in his judgments. He does offer judgments, and he recreates events brilliantly. But he never goes too far, and he presents his case in detail in his lengthy endnotes. It is unfortunate that Amazon.com does not have the staff to fact-check customer reviews; if they did, there would not be a single negative review. For example, a reviewer from "Fairfax, Va." claims that Stiles does not mention certain details of the story, such as the fact that two early victims of Jesse James's guerrilla band, Bond and Dagley, were thought responsible for the hanging of Reuben Samuel the year before. Stiles does in fact address this; he simply puts a different light on it (saying, "Indeed, there was nothing military about the decision to kill either Bond or Dagley; they had long since left the militia...", p. 104). This same customer review, like the one or two other negative customer reviews, is so inaccurate as to appear to be a deliberate attempt to undercut Mr. Stiles's superb work, without reasonable basis.

To my knowledge, every historian and professional book reviewer who has examined this book (and there have been many, from Eric Foner to James McPherson) has given it a resounding vote of approval. It is scholarly in the best sense, vividly written in the best way, always honest, insightful, and gripping. A reader who wishes to know the details of Frank James's post-banditry career as a burlesque-house doorman certainly should rush out to buy Ted Yeatman's "Frank and Jesse James." A reader who wants to understand why Jesse James was the public face of the outlaws, why he played such a large public role, what Missouri (and the United States in general) endured in the Civil War and Reconstruction, and wishes to read a painstakingly accurate but vividly written account of the James brothers' escapades, should definitely buy this outstanding work.

This biography of Jesse James treats its subject right. The book gives the reader a rich background of what was going on in America and a serious look at who James was. Stile reveals that James' story has more to do with the Civil War and its aftermath than with the conditions that produced frontier outlaws. If you want to know the truth-and not the movie version of James' life-read this book. You'll come away with not only a greater understanding of who James was, but also what drives humans to do the most noble and the most horrible things.

Recently I picked up this book off the "new acquisitions" display at one of the many branches of Baltimore County Public Library. I thought it would be more sensational than factual. Wow, was I wrong.

This work will grip your attention from the opening salvo to the end and many tips and clues are given by this excellent author to additional materials. It covers Missouri history from fairly early in the 19th century to the threshold of the 20th century. If one has people who were part of Missouri society during that time frame,as I do, it goes a long way toward explaining what was said and not said in family stories and legends.

The notorious James and Younger brothers had many copycat banditti in Missouri during the 19th century. This fine, well written and well documented work will help in launching one into a study of the period and in discovering data about these copycat thugs who often occupy space in the family history closets of many Missouri, Kansas, Iowa, Tennessee and Kentucky families. This applies to families of both Union and/or Confederate extraction.

It also serves as a remarkable expose of Missouri history with flashes of light which burst with brilliant clarity on many aspects of regional and U.S. national history of the time. Stiles manages to rip off the rhetorical and stylistic turgidity which seems to characterize so much contemporaneous U.S. history and makes the people seem more real from a 21st century perspective. His comments about the railroad scandals of the time reveals that Enron and WorldCom are not so new in their revelations of human greed and rapacity.

I like this book and I intend to have my own copy quite soon. The photographs are remarkable. One can look at the photo of a youngish Jesse and perhaps be forgiven for thinking, Jesse looks like a sociopath should look. He was a handsome, rather cute type with a turned up nose but even in the black and white photo of the time, the eyes strike one as being of a madman. Not a screaming, raving, frothing-at-the-mouth madman, but a cruel, calculating, unstoppable mass killer who thrived on notoriety and newspaper publicity.

"Jesse James, Last Rebel of the Civil War" would make a great TV miniseries or an even greater epic movie on the "Lawrence of Arabia" scale.

N.B. I have acquired my own copy of this work since I wrote this review and I find I must agree with another reviewer. This is one of the most remarkable biographies I have read in a long time. It really should be considered for a Pulitzer Prize or at least some other notable prize. T.J. Stiles has penned a masterpiece of American biography. Ken Burns should look into this story for one of his PBS productions.

Stiles' book is a well written, well researched, and informative exploration of violence in Missouri in the Civil War era. The biggest problem, however, is that only the last few chapters focus on Jesse James. Because James did not leave behind many documents detailing his actions and motivations, Stiles provides lengthy context about the political and social environment in which James lived. Far too much context, in my opinion. The focus of his book is often far away from James's and his gang's actions. Although a historical figure cannot be divorced from the context of his/her times, a historian should not stray too far from the central figure of a biography. A more accurate title of this book would be "Jesse James's Missouri." Page after page passes with little or no reference to James or his gang. Only after Reconstruction ends does the author focus on Jesse and his crimes.

Stiles faces a problem in convincing the reader that Jesse was a diehard Confederate. Although James came from a slaveholding family and seemed to have no sympathy toward Yankees and Northern Reconstruction policies, James's Confederate identity seemed the brainchild of his greatest defender, the newspaper man John Edwards. Stiles provides little information about James's racial views, which were central to Confederate and post-war Southern politics. Although James no doubt shared the racist convictions of his day, he seemed to act with no clear idea of how his crimes would undermine Republican political aims: civil rights legislation and fiscal/state activism. Since Missouri was never officially a Confederate state, it was not occupied in the way the Deep South states were. Nor was the black population in Missouri close the size of that in South Carolina, Louisiana, or Mississippi, where Reconstruction was hotly contested. James seemed not to have directed attacks at black men or women or their white Republican allies, the people who were the targets of ex-Confederate violence in other states. Many of James's victims were Unionists. Although Unionists certainly were not liked by Confederates, James lived in a very different environment than say, South Carolina, where one's Unionist past was less important than the color of one's skin. One should also be very cautious of Stiles labeling James a "terrorist." Although there are some similarities between nineteenth century bushwhackers and present-day terrorists, the term bushwhacker or bandit for James and his gang seems sufficient.

Lets face it: the last definitive biography of Jesse James came out quite some time ago. This book was a much-needed reinterpretation of a man who was indeed romanticized as latter day Robin Hood. To say that Stiles is biased because he's from the North makes as much sense as saying that the only unbiased viewpoint possible is from a Southerner. As modern biographies tend to be more probing about character, psychology and motivation, and takes into account formative experiences, I think we're seeing a much more compelling picture of James as someone who experienced early brutality and who learned to give as good as he got. In this way, Stiles is as respectful and fairer to his subject than James fans with an emotional attachment give him credit for.

A must-read for anyone who is interested in American History.

I saw the author speak on CSPAN, and I decided that I had to get this book. He was very gracious about other writers about Jesse James, including Ted Yeatman, whose book seemed like the last word on Jesse James when it came out a couple of years ago. Well, Stiles has Yeatman beat by a longshot. This is old-fashioned grand history that goes from the James farm to Civil War battlefields, Pinkerton's offices, bank and train robberies, and even the White House. I love a big story, and Stiles tells it very well. Jesse James is at the center of it, but the book ranges far and wide to explain the times, so as to better explain the James boys. Jesse really makes sense to me like he never did before. As a matter of fact, Jesse's story has never been told so well. This is a real page turner. And even though the story is so big, the author gets the details right. He explains all manner of things that no one, and I mean no one, has ever understood when it comes to the James-Younger gang. Like why it made sense to rob trains, who really hired the Pinkertons, and how the Civil War really went in Missouri. (Now I understand where all the Union men came from). Stiles even found gunfights that the outlaws got into that no one mentioned before, like one at Civil Bend near Gallatin after the Corydon robbery. For fun, I looked up the old newspaper stories about that one on microfilm, and I'll tell you, Stiles got it right, like everything else in this great, great book.