Jesse James by Tj Stiles
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."Carries the reader scrupulously through James's violent, violent life.... When [Stiles]... calls Jesse James the 'last rebel of the Civil War; he correctly defines the theme that ruled Jesse's life." --Larry McMurtry, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Lonesome Dove via The New Republic
Raised in a fiercely pro-slavery household in bitterly divided Missouri, 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.
T.J. Stiles has held the Dorothy and Lewis B. Gilder Lehrman Fellowship in American History at the Dorothy and Lewis B. Gilder Lehrman Foundation. At the New York Public Library's Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers, he lectured at Columbia University and served as an adviser for the PBS series The American Experience. His debut book, Jesse James: Last Rebel of the Civil War, was a New York Times Notable Book and won the Ambassador Book Medal and the Peter Seaborg Award for Civil War Research. In 2009, The First Tycoon won the National Book Award. He has contributed to The New York Times Book Review, Salon.com, Smithsonian, and the Los Angeles Times, among other publications.
He currently resides in San Francisco. www.tjstiles.com is the author's website.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9780375705588 |
| ISBN 10 | 0375705589 |
| Title | Jesse James |
| Author | Tj Stiles |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Paperback |
| Publisher | Random House USA Inc |
| Year published | 2003-10-28 |
| Number of pages | 544 |
| Prizes | Winner of Ambassador Book Award 2003 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |