Benedict Arnold: Patriot and Traitor

667, [1] pp. "Set during America's Revolutionary War, this true story of political intrigue and human tragedy has too often been relegated to vilifying legend. With a journalist's skill and a historian's accuracy, Willard Stern Randall presents a detailed portrait of Benedict Arnold the man, whose astonishing change of heart and mind had as much to do with his passion for victory, wealth, and recognition as with any fervent political convictions. Arnold's name has become synonymous with the word traitor, but Arnold's legend often neglects the fact of his military acumen and his astounding victories against the British early in the revolution - victories despite which he was snubbed for promotion. As interested in the spoils of war as in the war itself, Arnold lived lavishly, but he also spent his own money on rations for his troops when supplies ran out - for which he was never remunerated. In vainglorious anger and petulant frustration, this man, who once counted George Washington as a close friend and mentor, plotted to deliver the general and the fort at West Point to the British for a sum of £20,000. Randall also presents the vivid context of Arnold's actions, re-creating the formidable tensions and infighting of colonial wartime, and giving the reader an understanding of Arnold's motives for betraying the country for which he had once fought so diligently."