Turncoat: Benedict Arnold and the Crisis of American Liberty

Why did the once-ardent hero of the American Revolutionary cause become 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.

• The Tragedy of Benedict Arnold: An American Life
• The Indian World of George Washington: The First President, the First Americans, and the Birth of the Nation
• Valiant Ambition: George Washington, Benedict Arnold, and the Fate of the American Revolution (The American Revolution Series) Book Cover May Vary
• In the Hurricane's Eye: The Genius of George Washington and the Victory at Yorktown (The American Revolution Series)
• Unlikely General: "Mad" Anthony Wayne and the Battle for America
• Valley Forge
• Young Washington: How Wilderness and War Forged America's Founding Father
• The Contest for Liberty: Military Leadership in the Continental Army, 1775–1783
• Vicksburg: Grant's Campaign That Broke the Confederacy
• The British Are Coming: The War for America, Lexington to Princeton, 1775-1777 (The Revolution Trilogy)