It's highly entertaining as well, much more, in my opinion, than most works of fiction on similar subjects, & never more so than in the riveting & detailed depiction of the prelude, event & aftermath of the disastrous Northfield Minnesota raid. From the lunatic political logic of its genesis to the appalling & pathetically grim aftermath of the escape, (the James brothers horseless at one point & subsisting on foraged potatoes & field corn)this is spell-binding stuff.
Among the many fascinating things I found out along the way were that "gun-slinging" as such did not exist before the war between the states; that local banks printed their own "currency" until the 1860s when state & national banks took over & lent stability to the monetary system; that the express companies were the ones who suffered the most financially when trains were robbed, the railroads sustaining relatively minor financial damage; that before the James Gang & their ilk, most robberies involved little violence.
It's a book that leaves you with enormous insights into the historical workings of the press, of government, of the many contemporaneous industries of the day & their impact on the social & political fabric that is still 100% relevant to this day. It reminds me of the kinds of books Barbara Tuchman used to write.
It's a superb work. I cannot recommend it highly enough.
Stiles sees James as a product of his times, the Civil War. Unlike the large battles of the East or even what is considered the Western theaters of the war, the Civil War in Missouri was mostly a small-scale but brutual conflict, with murder of unarmed civilians the norm. In contrast, for all of the hatred that Sherman that incurred as a result of his march through Georgia and the other Confederate states, few if any civilians were physically harmed; the damage was done to property instead. Jesse James served with some of the most brutal leaders in the war, and most of the men he and his comrades killed were murdered, not killed in combat. Stiles is careful to point out that Jesse James also suffered at the hands of Union forces, being beaten as teenager and seeing his stepfather hanged (but not killed). Even given this mistreatment, it is hard to justify James' actions during and after the war.
Stiles's biography is likely the best that we will have about Jesse James. One can argue about how much politics played in Jesse James's motivation, but Stiles makes a convincing case that he was strongly motivated by a hatred for the North. This may have been the prime reason that he and other engaged in the disastorous attempt to rob a bank in Northfield Minnesota; one of the owners was a Northern soldier who had been governor of Mississippi during the reconstruction.
As for the negative reviews that are contained here, Stiles's has thoroughly identified his sources. Thus, those who are experts in this area (and I do not claim any expertise) can judge the basis for any statements he makes in the book. In the end, he presents a convincing picture of Jesse James as someone brutalized by the Civil War and who found that enjoyed the brutality. Stiles also shows how Jesse James became more than a common robber because he was politically useful in the struggle for control of Missouri in the aftermath of the Civil War.
