FYS: The Political Economy of the Pinkertons

3 Credits.

This First-Year Seminar explores the history of the Pinkerton National Detective Agency, the first American detective firm and a major force in American politics from the 1850s through the 1930s. We will follow the Pinkertons from Civil War battlefields to the bloody fights over the American West, as they chase train robbers, break strikes, and create a trail of enemies along the way. Over the course of the semester, we will visit the B&O Railroad Museum and also investigate representations of the Pinkertons in popular culture, including the video game Red Dead Redemption 2.