Jesse James traces the Missouri guerrilla who became one of the most famous outlaws of the post-Civil War United States. It follows his wartime experience with pro-Confederate irregulars and the bank, train and stagecoach robberies associated with the James-Younger gang.
The biography examines the political sympathies and newspaper publicity that recast criminal violence as resistance to Reconstruction and corporate power. It concludes with betrayal and death at the hands of Robert Ford, while explaining how popular culture transformed James into a Robin Hood figure unsupported by the historical record.
