Tore Olson

So it depends whether, you know, this is a territory or a state.

There's, you know, a formal transition between those.

That's very significant.

Very often the sort of the law, the sheriffs, if you will, were the representatives of Eastern businesses who were coming there to safeguard the extraction of capital, of raw materials back East.

And I think here's a classic example is Wild Bill Hickok.

Wild Bill Hickok is this peace officer who's working in ranching towns and

Mm-hmm.

And Wild Bill Hickok is a dyed-in-the-wool Republican as well, who is trying to protect the institution of industrial capitalism in the West and keep folks from, you know, getting grit in the gears.

Particularly cowboys, Texas cowboys, who tended to be Democrats, who were much more hostile toward these big Eastern businesses.

And who, you know, were still had gripes about the Civil War.

This is, you know, 10, 15 years later on.

So while Bill Hickok, you know, he's he's a Republican who's often shooting at Democratic cowboys, which is quite fascinating.

Yeah.

Well, the Pinkertons is something I love to chat about because they have a very special place in Red Dead Redemption 2.

They are the only institution that is not fictionalized in Red Dead 2.

They are called the Pinkertons.

That's exactly the same name that they went by in the late 19th century.

And this actually got the developer, Rockstar Games, in a bit of trouble because the Pinkerton agency still exists in much reduced format.

And they sued Rockstar Games, saying that they were defaming their reputation by portraying them so negatively on the screen.

But of course, the Pinkertons were very real.