Allan Pinkerton: The First Private Eye - Hardcover

The founder of the United States's most famous detective agency was a fiery political radical in his native Scotland before immigrating to America in 1842. The genius for organization and attention to detail that he displayed as a rebel stood Allan Pinkerton (1819-1884) in good stead as he shaped a national organization capable of pursuing criminals across state lines at a time when there was no federal law enforcement. Vividly depicting his subject's eventful career, historian James Mackay corrects longstanding errors as small as Pinkerton's birthday and as large as the canard that he provided Union Army General McClellan with faulty intelligence that prolonged the Civil War.

Beginning with his early days in Scotland as a member of the radical chartists, this book covers the legendary Allan Pinkerton's days as a detective for the Chicago police force and his founding of the Northwest Detective Agency, the first of its kind in the Western hemisphere. It provides in-depth coverage of Pinkerton's role in the Civil War, where he became a trusted confidante of President Lincoln and is credited with establishing the first military intelligence unit for the United States.