Author: Stephen Brumwell Publisher: Yale University Press ISBN: 0300235186 Category : Biography & Autobiography Languages : en Pages : 475
Book Description
A historian examines how a once-ardent hero of the American Revolutionary cause became its most dishonored traitor. General Benedict Arnold’s failed attempt to betray the fortress of West Point to the British in 1780 stands as one of the most infamous episodes in American history. In the light of a shining record of bravery and unquestioned commitment to the Revolution, Arnold’s defection came as an appalling shock. Contemporaries believed he had been corrupted by greed; historians have theorized that he had come to resent the lack of recognition for his merits and sacrifices. In this provocative book Stephen Brumwell challenges such interpretations and draws on unexplored archives to reveal other crucial factors that illuminate Arnold’s abandonment of the revolutionary cause he once championed. This work traces Arnold’s journey from enthusiastic support of American independence to his spectacularly traitorous acts and narrow escape. Brumwell’s research leads to an unexpected conclusion: Arnold’s mystifying betrayal was driven by a staunch conviction that America’s best interests would be served by halting the bloodshed and reuniting the fractured British Empire. “Gripping… In a time when charges of treason and disloyalty intrude into our daily politics, Turncoat is essential reading.”—R. R. B. Bernstein, City College of New York “The most balanced and insightful assessment of Benedict Arnold to date. Utilizing fresh manuscript sources, Brumwell reasserts the crucial importance of human agency in history.”—Edward G. Lengel, author of General George Washington “An incisive study of the war and the very meaning of the American Revolution itself…. The defining portrait of Arnold for the twenty-first century.”—Francis D. Cogliano, author of Revolutionary America
Author: Steve Sheinkin Publisher: Flash Point ISBN: 1429951354 Category : Juvenile Nonfiction Languages : en Pages : 353
Book Description
New York Times bestselling author, Newbery Honor recipient, and National Book Award finalist Steve Sheinkin presents both the heroism and the treachery of one of the Revolutionary War's most infamous players in his biography of Benedict Arnold. Winner of the Boston Globe-Horn Book Award for Nonfiction Winner of the YALSA-ALA Award for Excellence in Young Adult Nonfiction Most people know that Benedict Arnold was America's first, most notorious traitor. Few know that he was also one of its greatest Revolutionary War heroes. Steve Sheinkin's accessible biography, The Notorious Benedict Arnold, introduces young readers to the real Arnold: reckless, heroic, and driven. Packed with first-person accounts, astonishing American Revolution battle scenes, and surprising twists, this is a gripping and true adventure tale from history. “Sheinkin sees Arnold as America's ‘original action hero' and succeeds in writing a brilliant, fast-paced biography that reads like an adventure novel...The author's obvious mastery of his material, lively prose and abundant use of eyewitness accounts make this one of the most exciting biographies young readers will find.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review) “Several complex political, social, and military themes emerge, one of the most prominent being that within the Continental army, often simplistically depicted as single-minded patriots, beat hearts scheming with political machinations that are completely familiar today...Arnold's inexorable clash with Gates and his decision to turn traitor both chill and compel.” —Horn Book Magazine (starred review) Also by Steve Sheinkin: Bomb: The Race to Build—and Steal—the World's Most Dangerous Weapon The Port Chicago 50: Disaster, Mutiny, and the Fight for Civil Rights Undefeated: Jim Thorpe and the Carlisle Indian School Football Team Most Dangerous: Daniel Ellsberg and the Secret History of the Vietnam War Which Way to the Wild West?: Everything Your Schoolbooks Didn't Tell You About Westward Expansion King George: What Was His Problem?: Everything Your Schoolbooks Didn't Tell You About the American Revolution Two Miserable Presidents: Everything Your Schoolbooks Didn't Tell You About the Civil War Born to Fly: The First Women's Air Race Across America
Author: John F. Luzader Publisher: Casemate Publishers ISBN: 9781932714852 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 483
Book Description
Saratoga weaves together the political, strategic, tactical, and operational aspects of this decisive Revolutionary War campaign. Supported by original maps, engaging appendices, and extensive end notes, Luzader's magisterial study is simply history at its finest--Cover.
Author: Barry Wilson Publisher: McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP ISBN: 9780773521506 Category : Biography & Autobiography Languages : en Pages : 308
Book Description
General, soldier, businessman, traitor: these are all words associated with the name Benedict Arnold. One of America's greatest soldiers and most reviled traitors, he was also a significant and intriguing player in Canada's history. In Benedict Arnold Bar
Author: Ennis Duling Publisher: McFarland ISBN: 147668491X Category : History Languages : en Pages : 249
Book Description
Years before General Benedict Arnold betrayed the American cause, a young officer and attorney named John Brown brought 13 charges of misconduct against him and called for his arrest, Brown was shuttled from one general to another, and finally to George Washington, before powerful politicians decided in Arnold's favor without hearing from Brown or any other witnesses. Historians have continued to ignore the accusations, finding Brown's charges to be false, and even absurd. In fact, some are unquestionably true, and all are worthy of investigation. John Brown was an early hero of the Revolution, a legislator, envoy, spy, and accomplished field officer. His charges and his many proposed witnesses are a starting point for a reevaluation of Arnold's conduct in the war--on his storied march up Maine's Kennebec River to Canada, during the winter siege of Quebec, and at the battles of Valcour Island and Saratoga. What emerges from Brown's charges is a story of deceit and misconduct, and of prominent leaders and historians turning a blind eye in order to maintain exciting myths.
Author: Arthur S. Lefkowitz Publisher: Savas Beatie ISBN: 1932714030 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 401
Book Description
A brilliant American combat officer and this countrys most famous traitor, Benedict Arnold is one of the most fascinating and complicated people to emerge from American history. His contemporaries called Arnold the American Hannibal after he successfully led more than 1,000 men through the savage Maine wilderness in 1775. The objective of Arnold and his heroic corps was the fortress city of Quebec, the capital of British-held Canada. The epic campaign is the subject of Benedict Arnolds Army, a fascinating campaign to bring Canada into the war as the 14th colony. The initiative for the assault came from George Washington who learned that a fast moving detachment could surprise Quebec by following a chain of rivers and lakes through the Maine wilderness. Washington picked Col. Benedict Arnold, an obscure and controversial Connecticut officer, to command the corps who signed up for the secret mission. Arnold believed that his expedition would reach Quebec City in twenty days. The route turned out to be 270 miles of treacherous rapids, raging waterfalls, and trackless forests that took months to traverse. At times Arnolds men were up to their waists in freezing water dragging and pushing their clumsy boats through surging rapids and hauling them up and over waterfalls. In one of the greatest exploits in American military history, Arnold led his famished corps through the early winter snow, up and over the Appalachian Mountains, and on to Quebec. Benedict Arnolds Army covers a largely unknown but important period of Arnolds life. Award-winning author Arthur Lefkowitz provides important insights into Arnolds character during the earliest phase of his military career, showing his aggressive nature, need for recognition, experience as a competitive businessman, and his obsession with honor that started him down the path to treason. Lefkowitz extensively researched Arnolds expedition and made numerous trips along the same route that Arnolds army took. Benedict Arnolds Army also contains a closing chapter with detailed information and maps for readers who wish to follow the expeditions route from the coast of Maine to Quebec City. There is a growing interest in the Founding Fathers and the Revolutionary War as a source of national pride and identity and the Arnold Expedition as told through Benedict Arnolds Army is one of the greatest adventure stories in American history. Arthur S. Lefkowitz lives in central New Jersey
Author: Joyce Lee Malcolm Publisher: Simon and Schuster ISBN: 1681778165 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 355
Book Description
History remembers this proud, talented, and conflicted man solely through the lens of his last desperate act of treason. Yet the fall of Benedict Arnold remains one of the Revolutionary period’s great puzzles. Why did a brilliant military commander, who repeatedly risked his life fighting the British, who was grievously injured in the line of duty, and fell into debt personally funding his own troops, ultimately became a traitor to the patriot cause? Throughout, Malcolm weaves in portraits of Arnold’s great allies—George Washington, General Schuyler, his beautiful and beloved wife Peggy Shippen, and others—as well as his unrelenting enemy John Adams, British General Clinton, and master spy John Andre. Thrilling and thought-provoking, The Tragedy of Benedict Arnold sheds new light on a man—as well on the nuanced and complicated time in which he lived.
Author: Arthur S. Lefkowitz Publisher: Grub Street Publishers ISBN: 1611211123 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 430
Book Description
This “gripping” history recounts the lives of American patriots who were a part of Arnold’s failed Canadian invasion during the Revolutionary War (Thomas Fleming, author of Liberty! The American Revolution). Hundreds of men followed Col. Benedict Arnold in an expedition to capture Quebec in 1775. After Arnold was wounded, his troops found themselves outnumbered and trapped inside the city. Award-winning author and Revolutionary-era historian, Arthur S. Lefkowitz takes a close look at some of the brave veterans who fought in Arnold’s failed campaign and explores the extraordinary lives they led afterward. In Benedict Arnold in the Company of Heroes, Lefkowitz paints vividly detailed portraits of early American patriots who continued their fight for independence after Arnold’s campaign. Some of the men portrayed include Charles Porterfield (who led troops at Brandwine); Daniel Morgan (the hero of Cowpens); Henry Dearborn and Timothy Bigelow (who fought alongside Arnold at Saratoga); Christian Febiger and Return Jonathan Meigs (who were at the forefront of the attack on Stony Point); Simeon Thayer (who refused to surrender at Fort Mifflin); and Col. Aaron Burr (whose wartime record was overshadowed by his later political career and duel with Alexander Hamilton). Benedict Arnold in the Company of Heroes “will delight readers who are looking for something new about the War of Independence” (John Ferling, author of Almost a Miracle: The American Victory in the War of Independence).
Author: Jack Kelly Publisher: St. Martin's Press ISBN: 1250281962 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 209
Book Description
"A dazzling addition to the history of the American Revolution." ―Kirkus Review (starred) "Finally... a full and fascinating portrait of a true hero of the American Revolution, until he was visited by villainy. A riveting read." ―Tom Clavin, New York Times bestselling author of Follow Me to Hell Benedict Arnold committed treason— for more than two centuries, that’s all that most Americans have known about him. Yet Arnold was much more than a turncoat—his achievements during the early years of the Revolutionary War defined him as the most successful soldier of the era. GOD SAVE BENEDICT ARNOLD tells the gripping story of Arnold’s rush of audacious feats—his capture of Fort Ticonderoga, his Maine mountain expedition to attack Quebec, the famous artillery brawl at Valcour Island, the turning-point battle at Saratoga—that laid the groundwork for our independence. Arnold was a superb leader, a brilliant tactician, a supremely courageous military officer. He was also imperfect, disloyal, villainous. One of the most paradoxical characters in American history, and one of the most interesting. GOD SAVE BENEDICT ARNOLD does not exonerate him for his treason—the stain on his character is permanent. But Kelly’s insightful exploration of Arnold’s career as a warrior shines a new light on this gutsy, fearless, and enigmatic figure. In the process, the book offers a fresh perspective on the reasons for Arnold’s momentous change of heart.
Author: Stephen Brumwell
Author: Steve Sheinkin
Author: John F. Luzader
Author: Barry Wilson
Author: James K. Martin
Author: Ennis Duling
Author: Arthur S. Lefkowitz
Author: Joyce Lee Malcolm
Author: Arthur S. Lefkowitz
Author: Jack Kelly