Benedict Arnold Pt. 2: Patriot and Traitor

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

This study, which contends that Arnold was ill-treated by America, reveals Arnold's impressive military accomplishments, his reasons for offering his services to the British in 1779, new information about his wife's role in the betrayal and his postwar efforts to clear his name. PW called this a ``richly detailed biography.'' Illustrated. (Sept.)

Library Journal

An encyclopedic biography of the Revolutionary War general whose name became synonymous with treason. Randall's narrative covers Arnold's whole life, including his military heroics for the American Revolutionary War, and the often undeserved charges of misconduct leveled against Arnold after the Canadian campaign and by civilian authorities in Philadephia (where he was military commander), which led to a humiliating public court martial and Arnold's defection to the British in 1780. A journalist and author of A Little Revenge: Benjamin Franklin and His Son (LJ 11/1/84) , Randall has written a narrative rather than interpretive study. Though well researched, it retells an account which has been standard for over half a century. Academic readers will find nothing new here. For the general reader, James Thomas Flexner's The Traitor and the Spy ( 1953) remains the popular standard.-- David Szatmary, Univ. of Washington, Seattle

Herbert Mitgang

Captivating biography...Benedict Arnold: Patriot and Traitor is a why-done-it...The book reads like a thriller.
—New York Times

Taylor

A magisterial full - dressed portrait and one that takes advantage of many fresh sources.
—The Boston Globe