Jesse James: Last Rebel of the Civil War

Really great read!Two things other reviewers beat around the bush about but don't state exactly.The main one is that by the end of the Civil War Jesse was only 16 and had never really been away from home. By today's standards, his family would be the equivalent of the upper-middle-class, living and working in the rural areas of America. That he was from the southern culture is the key. The fact that his family owned 6 or 7 slaves, tragic, but it really had only a minor or no impact on his thinking as aside from one man, the rest of the slaves were working inside the house on domestic work (probably about a 1,000 sq ft. common house of the era), not in the fields. As a 16-year-old it was not his view of economics, it was his environment - a bad, bad example, but what he knew of life.There was nothing documented about his using white-supremest language, though others were quoted with those type statements, occasionally. The thing that is being missed is that his family and friends were all doing financially okay, from his viewpoint. Then, as is well brought out, as the war ended and his culture was turned upside down as were the many, many families and friends lives. There were no plantations in Western Missouri. Just some families had some slaves, not thousands of slaves. And, it was a culture of people that had done okay with the southern culture who were now economically and politically, effectively imprisoned after the war. Many were governmentally mandated to leave their properties and disappear elsewhere in a couple of weeks or go to jail, and on and on. Their culture, wrong as it had been, was nearly half of the population of the US and were then treated as war criminals after the war, particularly in Western Missouri by Missouri's politics and law, different from the Federal handling of the ex-confederate states.Jesse, was vastly more impacted by the government overriding his Bill of Rights-rights than the loss of the Southern slave-owning economy. Most others in that Little Dixie culture of Western Missouri 'served' their 'sentences' in one way or another and became just regular citizens of the US, Western Missouri, again in 15 or 20 years, and went on with life. Even his older brother Frank worked for years in Kentucky during the late 1870s and through the 1880s as practically a lone white man amongst black workers harvesting trees, on the same labor level, and had no disagreements about it.But Jesse, between his intelligence and his very social, engaging, out-going and likable personality, became the voice of the angst against government overriding his and the other's Constitutional rights. Unfortunately, after he had effectively played a large part in correcting those wrongs and the 'chains' on the earlier secessionists were gone, Jessie didn't know how to live a 'normal' life.The other point is that after Jesse was gone, a deserved but wrongly rendered death, none of his friends and family or even most of his antagonists stood out in society more than just regular people in any-town, any-state in America. It just makes the statement that as wrong as he was, even though he did accomplish the political end he was after, he truly was an outstanding person to have effectively created, and he intentionally did, the persona that we still associate with the name Jesse James.There is a huge huge amount of documentation that T.J. Stiles cross-collated and filter truth from exaggeration, poor memory recountings, etc., at the end of the book, discrepancies being noted on those that were not included, etc.So, if you want the best understanding of who, what, when, where, and how of the life and times of Jesse James, including the social/economic/political/environmental aspects of his life, I highly recommend this book. I am sure you'll be greatly enlightened. It is a story and not a fact-fest.(BTW I have had many, great friends and work associates who were ultimately descended from the pre-Civil War era slaves, that I hold as great examples of how in America if you want something you can get it regardless of personal circumstances or handicaps. They are my fellow Americans regardless of ancestry.)

It looks like a standard western outlaw bio, but goes into more depth as it traces James’ formative years during the Missouri-Kansas Border War, his actions as a pro-Confederate guerrilla during the Civil War, and the continuation of his criminal career during Reconstruction. The conflict in the western states during the 1850s has warnings for our own time, especially in how quickly civil society can collapse. Also shows how the problems of Reconstruction are still with us.

Started out a little slow but after a couple chapters it got very interesting. Frank&Jesse were alot more evil than I knew when I was a child playing him. The teachers lied in history class and HID alot from us. Good book though

This is a throughly researched book that puts Jesse James in historical context and tries to separated the myth from the man. Stiles also explained why there was a myth to begin with. Why out of all the outlaws that were around during that time did Jesse James get so much attention? The author argues that James's public personas was a combination of the publicity that he got from a sympathetic newspaper editor John Edwards and his own efforts to publicize his exploits and justify what he did. James was symbolic of the larger political struggle in Missouri and other border states during the Civil War and his notoriety was in part due to his usefulness as a symbol and rallying point for pro Confederate and anti Reconstruction forces in the state at the time. Stile implies that as the forces that originally supported him got what they want, James became less useful as a political rallying point and the very people that at one time supported him or looked the other way from his crimes turned against him. James at the end of his life became a man out of time.After reading this book I had mixed feelings I found myself very unsympathetic to Jesse James's cause and political ideas and the chapters about his time with "Bloody Bill" Anderson made me look forward to his ad his brothers death. But I also felt after having finished the book that this was the story of a person that had been one of the surviving causalties of the Civil Way. His formative years were spent with a terrorist group committing atrocities agains fellow citizens and when the war was over he James did not seem to be able to move on like his older brother Frank. This well written book portrays Jesse James as the living embodiment of the Civil War in the border states and the destructive effect it had on the people that were a part of it.

Honestly this is one of the best biographies I have read in recent memory. Stiles does a fantastic job of contextualizing James' place within history while keeping it confined to Missouri and not going into laborious detail on irrelevancies. At the same time, the narrative really doesn't fully orient toward Jesse James until about halfway through the book, but it is important to understand his environment and the violent culture he was socialized into. Don't get me wrong, James is present throughout, however he isn't the primary focus until about half-in. The history itself is fascinating though, covering Bleeding Kansas, the Civil War and Reconstruction, all with a Missouri focus. I also read this on a kindle so didn't have a problem with font-size.Stiles doesn't glorify the outlaw, he lets the facts speak for themselves and uses them to debunk more swallowable interpretations of James. He mentions small anecdotes about James rare moments of kindness but places them within the broader truth that James was probably addicted to violence. The fact that Stiles includes these anecdotes I think proves not only the thoroughness of his research, but also his lack of bias in that he includes all sides. Any accusation of bias on part of Stiles is someone having a problem with who James actually was. It's blaming the messenger for the message. I read this for an episode of my podcast, Hard Fried History.

Most people I think know something of Jesse James and his brother Frank mainly from Hollywood. This book also tells of the background to the causes/reasons for his life choice. It traces his origins from a respectable farming family and a preacher father into pre civil war family tragedy and on through to his well known bank/train robbing days with his many fellow gang members and finally up to his betrayal and death.But the real story is of the social/political events within Missouri and it's neighbouring states and how these events shaped Jesse's and Missourians in general through the 1840's until the 1880's.These events give some flesh around the bare bones of the bank robber that he became.Recommended.

Jesse James is one of those historical figures I've never known very much about; he was an outlaw in the years after the Civil War, and he's a famous figure in American history and popular culture. He was shot by one of his own followers. And Brad Pitt played him in the movie. That's about the sum total of my knowledge.What I found most interesting in reading this book is how much of a product of his time Jesse James was. He grew up in the years before the war, in a state that could really have been a microcosm of the nation as a whole as it tore itself apart on the way to war: neighbour against neighbour, whole communities divided. He became a guerilla fighter in Missouri during the war, known as a 'bushwhacker' and in a way he never really stopped.The war never ended for Jesse James, and until he died it never ended for Missouri either. He became a visible symbol of the Confederacy for those in Missouri who had fought for the South, a man who refused to give up the fight, and he still enjoyed widespread support amongst ex-Confederates, which largely contributed to the difficulties the authorities had in apprehending him. But as the nation moved on and Reconstruction ended, Jesse's outlaw life became less about politics and more about crime as a way of life and his support began to erode.Jesse James was a self-consciously political bandit and it would be impossible, not to mention a grave disservice, to attempt to separate the man from the context in which he operated. The author has clearly done an exhaustive amount of research on both, and this book could serve just as well for anyone wanting to read about Missouri during the Civil War and Reconstruction.

Very good. Well written, well researched, lots of good, relevant context (and with a topic like this, good context is always 70% of it). If you want an introduction to this subject, and plan to go on to greater detail, you won't find a better place to start: equally, if you just want a good, interesting sketch of JJ's life and times, this is probably the best work to date. The only place Stiles falls short is in his discussion of Hobsbawm: but then, Hobsbawm gets it half wrong, anyway.

Like most books that look back on history, it focuses heavily on the politics of the time. I was hoping for more of a gunslinig re-tell of Jesse James's life. I only managed to read 100 ish pages before I put it down. Maybe I would have enjoyed more as the book went on but I will never know. I understand why it was based heavily on politics but its just not my preferred type of read.

Comprehensive look at events with a heavy focus on background and context of the state of Missouri which accounts for nearly half the book. Don't be put of by that because it is interesting and helps understanding of who Jesse James was and why he was that way.