Allan Pinkerton

America's Legendary Detective and the Birth of Private Security

By: Rhodri Jeffreys-Jones

Narrated by: Adam Barr

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 Detective Agency (PNDA). It is the story of how PNDA's founder and its successive generations of heirs put it at the center of American history for decades. A small sampling of Pinkerton's activities includes providing intelligence in the Civil War, pursuing high-profile outlaws like Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, and protecting scabs in the Homestead lockout, for which they became notorious. The book continues telling PNDA's history into the twentieth century and analyzes the legacies of Pinkertonism up to the present.

General listeners as well as scholars of American history will be fascinated by this rich new portrait of Pinkerton's accomplishments, controversies, and contradictions.

©2025 Rhodri Jeffreys-Jones (P)2025 Tantor Media

Good history of the agency, not a biography

This was a very well researched, written, and performed history of the Pinkerton National Detective Agency. The first half covers much of Alan Pinkertons life, but is not a biography of him. It focuses on biographical details that aid the authors later historical/political commentary, while completely ommiting major factors like his service as a Post Office Special Agent (now called Postal Inspectors). The book is largely fair handed, but betrays it's slant through a left leaning modern day political lense at the very end. Overall I recommend the book if you're interested in the history of the agency and want an overview of the man's life.