The Pinkerton Detective Agency | Behind The Brand | 4

American History Tellers

Wondery

Society & Culture, Kids & Family, History, Education For Kids

4.7 • 18.3K Ratings

🗓️ 29 May 2024

⏱️ 47 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Allan Pinkerton started the Pinkerton National Detective Agency to catch robbers, counterfeiters and spies. For a time, Pinkerton detectives enjoyed their good image, carefully crafted by Pinkerton himself. But, that image tarnished as the Pinkertons increasingly took on paid work breaking up strikes for Gilded Age industrialists. Today, Lindsay is joined by S. Paul O’Hara, an Associate Professor of History at Xavier University, to discuss Allan Pinkerton’s determination to build the company brand and cultivate his own mythology. O’Hara is the author of, Inventing the Pinkertons.

Pre-order your copy of the new American History Tellers book, The Hidden History of the White House, for behind-the-scenes stories of some of the most dramatic events in American history—set right inside the house where it happened.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Wunderry Plus subscribers can binge new seasons of American history tellers early and
0:05.1	ad free right now. Join Wundery Plus in the Wundery app or on Apple Podcasts. Imagine it's late morning in June of 1879. You're a 21-year-old aspiring writer living in Chicago,
0:29.0	and you're walking briskly up Washington Street toward a large office building.
0:33.2	You've been unable to sell your first novel, so you took a job co-writing a book with Alan Pinkerton,
0:38.0	head of the Pinkerton National Detective Agency.
0:41.2	Today you're heading to the agency's main office to meet with Mr. Pinkerton and review with him the first draft of the manuscript you turned in last week. After arriving, a secretary leads you to a large office where Pinkerton himself sits behind a cluttered desk.
0:56.0	You know he suffered a stroke years ago, and in your first two meetings he appeared frail and older than his 60 years, but today he seems more robust and energized.
1:05.0	Hello young man, take a seat. I read your manuscript and I have some concerns.
1:09.0	Oh, concerns. What did you not like about it?
1:12.0	Well, for starters, there's not enough drama or action.
1:15.0	It's a little flat, honestly, kind of boring.
1:18.0	Your heart sinks because you were sure you'd written a grade book.
1:21.0	Well, I'm sorry to hear you feel that way sir. What do you suggest?
1:25.0	Well one thing you can do is add more dialogue. Get people talking. But how can I do that?
1:29.2	I wasn't there. I don't know what people actually said.
1:32.4	Oh that doesn't matter, embellish. The readers I wasn't there I don't know what people actually said.
1:32.6	Oh that doesn't matter embellish the readers don't care they want to be entertained
1:36.7	that's what these books are entertainment I thought you understood that
1:40.7	you've read Pinkerton's previous books and you tried to copy the style, but this new one,
1:45.6	Spy of the Rebellion, tells the story of Pinkerton's time as a spy for the Union Army during the Civil
1:51.1	War. The idea of putting words in people's mouths made you
1:54.4	uncomfortable. I want to be sure I'm hearing you correct that you want me to
	...

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