Allan Pinkerton
America's Legendary Detective and the Birth of Private Security
$70.93
- Hardcover
328 pages
- Release Date
1 June 2025
Summary
A deeply researched account of the life and legacy of the man who defined the profession of private eye
Allan Pinkerton, the world’s most famous private detective, has been an enduring source of fascination since the nineteenth century. But the details of his impact, business empire, and private life have been incomplete.
Drawing on overlooked primary sources, Rhodri Jeffreys-Jones provides an authoritative account of the man and the Pinkerton National Detecti…
Book Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781647125844 |
|---|---|
| ISBN-10: | 1647125847 |
| Author: | Rhodri Jeffreys-Jones |
| Publisher: | Georgetown University Press |
| Imprint: | Georgetown University Press |
| Format: | Hardcover |
| Number of Pages: | 328 |
| Release Date: | 1 June 2025 |
| Weight: | 590g |
| Dimensions: | 152mm x 229mm |
| Audience Age: | 18 |

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Critics Review
Allan Pinkerton offers a riveting account of a largely overlooked figure whose shadow still looms over modern law enforcement and private security.
* Washington Examiner *Jeffreys-Jones explores Pinkerton’s life in forensic detail.
* Glasgow Herald *Allan Pinkerton is deeply researched and seems likely to stand as the definitive biography of Pinkerton.
* H-Diplo *[H]is work goes further than any others toward finding such an explanation….Jeffreys-Jones’s painstaking extraction of actual events from the myths constructed around them not only gives this work its intellectual heft but opens new insights into Pinkerton.
* H-Diplo *Jeffreys-Jones’s book goes beyond a traditional biography or even a collective biography….[It] has opened the door to a host of additional research into records that have likely never before been used by scholars.
* H-Diplo *Jeffreys-Jones moves into a much more significant analysis of not only Allan Pinkerton and his agency but also the form of private security that he created.
* H-Diplo *This engaging and informative series of salient vignettes, which outlines over 100 years of the history of the Pinkerton National Detective Agency, should delight scholars and general readers alike.
* CHOICE connect *Rhodri Jeffreys-Jones
Rhodri Jeffreys-Jones is the author or editor of nearly twenty books, including The Nazi Spy Ring in America (2020) and A Question of Standing: The History of the CIA (2022).
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