Jesse James: Last Rebel of the Civil War |  | Author: T.J. Stiles
Publisher: Vintage
Category: Book
List Price: $17.00
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Seller: djruschy
Rating:  60 reviews
Sales Rank: 7754
Media: Paperback
Pages: 544
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.6
Dimensions (in): 8 x 5 x 1.1
ISBN: 0375705589
Dewey Decimal Number: 364.1552092
EAN: 9780375705588
ASIN: 0375705589
Publication Date: October 28, 2003
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| • | ISBN13: 9780375705588 | | • | Condition: NEW | | • | Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark. |
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Product Description
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.
Amazon.com Review
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
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Showing reviews 1-5 of 60
 Best Book on Jesse James So Far January 22, 2010
Natalie Cladt (Brooklyn, NY)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
TJ Stiles brings an academic's depth and seriousness the subject of Jesse James, but, thankfully, his writing has none of the flat, clangy prose typically associated with large academically-driven projects like this. His writing is clear, sophisticated and it has energy.
Stiles' portrayal of James not as a simply an outlaw, but rather a racist motivated to rebel because keeping his family's slaves was an act of class preservation, is not new but it is drawn very convincingly and to a degree not seen before now. His scholarship is impeccable. Beyond this, Stiles paints a fascinating portrait of Missouri in post Civil War America, a place rife with violence, racism and fear. If these were the good old days and Jesse James a kind of Robin Hood, then Thomas Jefferson was the anti-Christ.
 Nothern Perspective Ruins a potentially good book January 8, 2010
Bowden Russell (Santa Fe, NM)
1 out of 3 found this review helpful
The author uses his position to judge James using 21st century morality.
Example: Some Union soldiers nearly kill James' step-father by hanging him. Jessie, as a teenager witnesses this. The next year, when Jessie is now riding with the rebels they pay a visit to the man, no longer in the Union army, who ordered the near hanging of Jessie's step father and execute the man.
The author goes out of his way to defend the former Union solider as a Non-combatant (any more) and that said killing was therefore unjustifiable.
I'm sorry. Just because the Unionist was no longer in the military doesn't protect him from the form of "street justice" which even today exists on America's cities and in the country.
I suspect this guy is just an academic who doesn't know how the real world operates.
JJ and the Gang December 8, 2009
Review King
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This is an excellent book if you are looking for a detailed story of not only the James Gang, but of the political climate in Missouri before, during, and after the war. It's a well written book. However, if you are just interested in Jesse and his exploits you will have to do a lot of reading here to find them.
Amazingly deep detail, insight and style. A truly great read!!!! TJ Stiles is an amazing writer! November 23, 2009
SmokinAsh (Ireland)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
A truly great read. Uncovers the myths about Jesse and gets to the heart of what he really stood for, where he came from and who he became. One of the best biographies I've ever had the pleasure to read. Ash
Not an easy go, but quite an academic achievement... August 26, 2009
William E. Adams (Midland, Texas USA)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Rather than "Last Rebel" the book could have been subtitled "The political/social world in which he grew up." There is more here about Missouri people, politics and economics between 1840-80 than most readers attracted to the name "Jesse James" might want or need. Knowing a lot about the environment that shaped the James gangs is essential to Mr. Stiles' view of why Jesse did what he did, had the local support he enjoyed for most of his career, and finally began to lose that near the end of his life. I've been interested in Jesse and Frank since I was a boy, never as a fan of the killing and thieving ways they practiced. The more I learned about them, the more interesting they became as people. Due to the necessity of hiding for most of their bandit years, we really will never know exactly how many robberies or killings the brothers perpetrated, or who exactly was with them when they did it. Frank, the survivor, even in surrender did not tell all, and due to some years apart, did not even know "all" that went on with his younger brother. Two years ago when I toured the Liberty Bank, site of the first robbery attributed to the brothers, I was told that most scholars believe the gang did 17 major robberies over a dozen years, but never again got as big a haul as that first one. That's fewer holdups than most folks think, and even fewer than that with the participation of both brothers or the Younger clan. I recommend going, if you can, to the bank and the nearby James family farm, which stayed in the family for most of a 120 year period and is now a museum. That's a fascinating place. This book has some new things to say about the two most famous or infamous incidents in the brothers' saga: the Pinkerton detectives' attack on the farm in 1875, and the Northfield bank fiasco the following year. About Jesse's murder by Bob Ford, not much is added that was not already widely known. This detailed and heavily footnoted volume is worth reading if you want to understand the damage the Civil War did to the people of Missouri, a slave state that was only one-third seccessionist and far from the activities of the uniformed opponents. If you are only interested in Jesse and Frank as portrayed in movies, this work might bore you.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 60
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