Jesse James: Last Rebel of the Civil WarIn this brilliant biography T. J. Stiles offers a new understanding of the legendary outlaw Jesse James. Although he has often been portrayed as a Robin Hood of the old west, in this ground-breaking work Stiles places James within the context of the bloody conflicts of the Civil War to reveal a much more complicated and significant figure. "Carries the reader scrupulously through James’s violent, violent life.... When [Stiles]… calls Jesse James the ‘last rebel of the Civil War; he correctly defines the theme that ruled Jesse’s life." —Larry McMurtry, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Lonesome Dove via The New Republic Raised in a fiercely pro-slavery household in bitterly divided Missouri, at age sixteen James became a bushwhacker, one of the savage Confederate guerrillas that terrorized the border states. After the end of the war, James continued his campaign of robbery and murder into the brutal era of reconstruction, when his reckless daring, his partisan pronouncements, and his alliance with the sympathetic editor John Newman Edwards placed him squarely at the forefront of the former Confederates’ bid to recapture political power. With meticulous research and vivid accounts of the dramatic adventures of the famous gunman, T. J. Stiles shows how he resembles not the apolitical hero of legend, but rather a figure ready to use violence to command attention for a political cause—in many ways, a forerunner of the modern terrorist. |
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Agriculture and Slavery Allan Pinkerton American Anderson April August bandits bank bushwhackers Castel and Goodrich Civil Clay County Clement Cole Younger Columbia crime December Democratic Edwards Edwards’s farm February Fellman Fletcher Foner former Frank James gang Governor guerrillas Hardin Historical Society History of Clay horses Hurt Jackson County James brothers January Jesse James Jesse James’s Jesse’s Jim Cummins John Joseph Journal of Commerce July June Kansas City Journal killed Lafayette County later letter Lexington Caucasian Liberty Tribune Liddil Louis Dispatch Louis Republican March McPherson Militia Report Missouri Press Missourians murder newspaper Northfield November October ordered outlaws Oxford University Press Papers Parrish party political Quantrill Radical raid railroad rebels Reconstruction revolver Richmond Conservator robbery rode Samuel secessionists September September 24 Settle sheriff shot slaves South Southern Thomas town troops Union Unionist University of Missouri Watkins Mill WHMC William Woodson wrote Yeatman York Zerelda