Jesse James: Last Rebel of the Civil War
by T.J. Stiles
List Price:
Our Price: $9.23
You Save: $7.77 (46%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $1.69 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions
Book Summary Information
Author: T.J. StilesEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2003-10-28
ISBN: 0375705589
Number of pages: 544
Publisher: Vintage
Book Reviews of Jesse James: Last Rebel of the Civil War
Book Review: Unmasking The Jesse James Myth
Summary: 5 Stars
This book will not be popular with pinheads who idolize gangsters and thugs as romantic, swashbuckling heroes. T. J. Stiles has revealed the ugly truth about Jesse James and his partners in crime in this fast moving but well researched book. The details of James' movements and crimes read like a suspense novel and it brings us as close to his personal life as possible without over speculation. The title is somewhat misleading because it gives one the impression that Jesse James was a Civil War soldier which he never was.
Stiles reveals how the Jesse James myth was largely created by newspaper editor, John Edwards, who protrayed James as a Robin Hood who was hounded and unjustly persecuted by Yankee carpetbaggers and radical reconstructionists. Without Edwards' grandiose storytelling and spin, the Jesse James myth falls apart. James admittedly craved this kind of publicity and was as skilled in self-promotion as he was in committing crimes.
James used the post Civil War political turmoil in Missouri to bolster his own image. By identifying himself with disenfranchized former Confederates, he tried to influence Southern Democrats to grant him immunity from his crimes. He played the role as a political hero to his own advantage and was aided by spinmeisters like Edwards. James was perceived by his admirers as the defending hero of a lost cause, the Confederacy. His legend flourished, in large part, because of the anger and resentment of former Confederates over reconstruction which included civil rights laws, empowering former slaves with the right to vote, receive an education, and serve in the army. Stiles clearly demonstrates how disenfranchized Confederates were Jesse James' support base.
Jesse James was barely 18 when the Civil War ended and, in fact, never served in the Civil War as a Confederate soldier. He started his career as a bushwhacker under the tutelage of criminal psychopaths like William Clarke Quantrill, "Bloody" Bill Anderson, and Archie Clement. Bushwhackers rode under the banner of the Confederacy and wrapped themselves in the Confederate flag to give themselves some measure of credibility. They were actually gangsters and thugs who terrorized, robbed, and murdered unarmed civilians who they perceived as yankee sympathizers or who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Contrary to the myth, the majority of the bushwhackers' victims were not Yankee invaders but native Missourians.
Stiles shatters the myth that James and his fellow outlaws struck businesses that oppressed the traditional farmer. The majority of James' allies were capitalists who farmed for profit and were integrated into the market system. The James family owned land and slaves and could hardly be considered peasants. Nobody in Missouri saw bank robbery and train robbery as solutions to the plight of the rural farmer. This was a myth which was created later on.
Jesse James' real enemies were not giant corporate entities like banks and railroads but his fellow Missourians who sided with the Union and abolitionists and reconstructionists like Adelbert Ames who wanted to enfranchize former slaves.
Jesse James' foolish admirers who demonize Robert Ford as a coward seem oblivious to the cold blooded murders committed by their hero. This would include a wounded and dazed bank teller, Joseph Heywood, who James shot after Heywood was savagely beaten by James' comrades during a bank robbery.
In the end, Jesse James was a thug and nothing more. The only thing praiseworthy about him was the daring and skill in which he carried out his crimes and his self-promotion. His sole contribution to society was to help slow the progress of reconstruction in Missouri by using fear and intimidation. As Stiles so adroitly notes, "in many respects, he was the forerunner of the modern terrorist."
Summary of Jesse James: Last Rebel of the Civil War
In 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.Raised in a fiercely pro-slavery household in bitterly divided Misssouri, 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.
Probably no American outlaw has attracted more attention--much of it flattering--than Jesse James. This revisionist biography by T.J. Stiles delves into the exciting life James led--"a tale of ambushes, gun battles, and daring raids, of narrow escapes, betrayals, and revenge." Yet it also places James within a specific political context, showing why it was possible for this murderous bandit to emerge as a folk hero among Southern sympathizers following the Civil War (in which he fought as a teenager). James is often grouped with famous frontier criminals like Billy the Kidd and Butch Cassidy, but he's best understood as a Southerner who forged partisan alliances in postwar Missouri and promoted himself as a latter-day Robin Hood. Stiles describes James as "a foul-mouthed killer who hated as fiercely as anyone on the planet" and places his life in the context of "the struggle for--or rather, against--black freedom." Stiles's fundamental point about James is as startling as it is convincing: "In his political consciousness and close alliance with a propagandist and power broker, in his efforts to win media attention with his crimes ... Jesse James was a forerunner of the modern terrorist." Tough words, but also deserved. --John J. Miller
Civil War Books
Book Subjects
- Arts & Photography
- Biographies & Memoirs
- Business & Investing
- Children's Books
- Comics & Graphic Novels
- Computers & Internet
- Cooking, Food & Wine
- Entertainment
- Gay & Lesbian
- Health, Mind & Body
- History
- Home & Garden
- Horror
- Law
- Literature & Fiction
- Mystery & Thrillers
- Nonfiction
- Outdoors & Nature
- Parenting & Families
- Professional & Technical
- Reference
- Religion & Spirituality
- Romance
- Science
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Sports
- Teens
- Travel
Most talked about in Civil War Books
Four Years With General Leeby Walter H. Taylor, James I. Robertson
Indiana Univ Pr; Published: 1996-06; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $44.00
Devil's Game: The Civil War Intrigues of Charles A. Dunhamby Carman Cumming
University of Illinois Press; Published: 2008-03-18; Paperback; Book
Best price: $16.22
Price in other shops:
Lincoln's Legacy: Ethics and PoliticsUniversity of Illinois Press; Published: 2007-11-21; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $27.00
Price in other shops:
Devil's Game: The Civil War Intrigues of Charles A. Dunhamby Carman Cumming
University of Illinois Press; Published: 2004-03-31; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $14.99
Price in other shops:
The Best American History Essays on Lincolnby Organization of American Historians
Palgrave Macmillan; Published: 2008-12-15; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $63.93
Price in other shops:
The Making of a Confederate: Walter Lenoir's Civil War (New Narratives in American History)by William L. Barney
Oxford University Press, USA; Published: 2008-07-18; Paperback; Book
Best price: $2.70
Price in other shops:
Walt Whitman's Memoranda During the Warby Walt Whitman
Oxford University Press; Published: 2006-07-13; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.05
Price in other shops:
Lamson of the Gettysburg: The Civil War Letters of Lieutenant Roswell H. Lamson, U.S. NavyOxford University Press, USA; Published: 1997-11-13; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $2.50
Price in other shops:
A Gentleman and an Officer: A Military and Social History of James B. Griffin's Civil Warby Judith N. McArthur, Orville Vernon Burton
Oxford University Press, USA; Published: 1996-12-19; Paperback; Book
Best price: $0.49
Price in other shops:
A Gentleman and an Officer: A Military and Social History of James B. Griffin's Civil Warby Judith N. McArthur, Orville Vernon Burton
Oxford University Press, USA; Published: 1996-12-19; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $98.96
Price in other shops:
Similar Books and other products
Doc Holliday: The Life and Legendby Gary L. Roberts
Wiley; Published: 2007-08-13; Paperback; Book
Best price: $9.38
Price in other shops:
The First Tycoon: The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbiltby T.J. Stiles
Vintage; Published: 2010-04-20; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.84
Price in other shops:
Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, The: A Novel (P.S.)by Ron Hansen
Harper Perennial; Published: 2007-09-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.81
Price in other shops:
The Devil Knows How To Ride: The True Story Of William Clarke Quantril And His Confederate Raidersby Edward E. Leslie
Da Capo Press; Published: 1998-08-22; Paperback; Book
Best price: $13.63
Price in other shops:
Frank and Jesse James, 2E: The Story Behind the Legendby Ted Yeatman
Cumberland House; Published: 2003-02-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $11.63
Price in other shops:
Wyatt Earp: The Life Behind the Legendby Casey Tefertiller
Wiley; Published: 1999-02-25; Paperback; Book
Best price: $10.97
Price in other shops:
Jesse James' Secret: Codes, Cover-ups & Hidden Treasureby Ronald J. Pastore, John O'Melveny Woods
Sunbelt Publications; Published: 2010-10-15; Paperback; Book
Best price: $13.57
Price in other shops:
Jesse James: The Best Writings on the Notorious Outlaw and His Gangby Harold Dellinger
Globe Pequot; Published: 2007-05-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.95
Price in other shops:
Bloody Bill Anderson: The Short, Savage Life of a Civil War Guerrillaby Albert E. Castel, Thomas Goodrich
University Press of Kansas; Published: 2006-03; Paperback; Book
Best price: $9.48
Price in other shops:
Jesse James: Legendary Rebel and Outlaw (Signature Lives: American Frontier Era series)by J. Dennis Robinson
Compass Point Books; Published: 2007-01-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.23
Price in other shops: