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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Good Read!,
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Benedict Arnold: Patriot and Traitor (Paperback)
This is perhaps the best single volume biography available on Benedict Arnold - America's greatest commander during the Revolutionary War and the Nation's greatest traitor!
Willard Sterne Randall has written a tremendously well researched, compelling and balanced book that details Benedict Arnold's accomplishments and failures during America's fight for Independence. Arnold was almost single-handedly responsible for the American invasion of Canada, which, due to his prowess as a Strategist, Commander and Soldier, came very close to succeeding. When he wasn't winning battles on land, America's preeminent battlefield general was winning them on the water, building a navy and then delaying the British advance into New York for a year, thus assuring the survival of the Continental Army and the Nation. Arnold was present at almost every major battle of the war, often snatching victory from the jaws of defeat. Both the British and their Loyalist allies soon grew to hate him. But his immense pride and hunger for wealth and recognition led to his downfall. Certainly the Continental Congress played a role, refusing to pay him four years of back pay due to him or reimburse him for the immense fortune he spent, out of his own pocket, training, equipping, and feeding his army and navy. Randall estimates that in all, Congress denied Arnold the equivalent of $275,000 due to him. Furthermore, their repeated slights of the General and attacks on his character took their took. Arnold had only to marry a young and beautiful 19 year old Loyalist for his treason to be assured. And so the man who almost single-handedly won the Revolutionary War (ensuring first the French, and then the Spanish and Dutch entered the fighting as allies of America), almost single-handedly lost it as he negotiated to turn over West Point and its forts to the British for 10,000 pounds. Only bad luck (on his part) prevented Arnold from succeeding. Once rescued by his benefactors, he fought as a British Brigadier against the Americans as effectively as he had fought for them. This is a tremendous interesting story and an equally interesting book. True, Randall has a tendency to repeat himself, but readers will find "Benedict Arnold Patriot and Traitor" a good read!
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Good Over View of How a Hero Became a Traitor,
By
This review is from: Benedict Arnold: Patriot and Traitor (Hardcover)
Although a little disturbed by reviewer York's comments that Arnolds hazardous march to Quebec is not altogether accurate particularly in regards to sabotage and desertion, the book provides a grand over view of Arnold's life that I was not altogether familiar with. The book starts with Arnold's early life where his father virtually becomes financially destroyed which seems to make him forever conscious of a need for him to be prosperous and financial solvent in the author's view. The best part of the book is the detail on Arnold's military accomplishments, which include his command of the Great lakes during the early part of the war in which he funded the building of small boats with his own money. One or part of the boats is in the Natural Museum of History on display in Washington D.C. where you can see the modest boat with a good size hole near the bow from a British war ship. Covers Arnold's failed but brave attempt to attack Canada and his great victorious battle at Saratoga where he suffers a crippling injury. In convalescence he is the military governor of Philadelphia where he meets his beautiful young wife whose family is suspect of being Tories. In the meantime, Arnold becomes frustrated with the failure of the Continental Congress to reimburse him for his costs in building the Great Lakes fleet. The author suggests this failure to appreciate Arnold and the lack of refund along with his love for his Tory wife may have prepared Arnold for the great act of treason at West Point. It is surprising that Arnold after he fled from West Point to the British he commanded a British army that captured Petersburg and burned his way south to Portsmouth. Arnold risked a hanging if he was caught by the Americans thus he leaves no doubt that he was brave on which ever side he served. Arnold allegedly counseled Cornwallis against moving to the Peninsula and Yorktown. The author reviews Arnold's post war quarrels with the British over money and commissions for his sons along with his failed land investments in Canada. Surprising that Arnold had business in Canada so close to the country he betrayed. A complex man that is fascinating to read about.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Brilliant in depth study of the real man, well researched.,
By A Customer
This review is from: Benedict Arnold: Patriot and Traitor (Paperback)
This is great scholarship. Takes you where the research, the original documents available lead, so you get the facts and see the real human being, instead of the caricatures handed down by his American contemporaries. An excellent read, backed by superb research, that follows one of the most dramatic stories in American history.For a different tack that tries a little more to get into the mind of BA, try James Kirby Martin's "Benedict Arnold, A Revolutionary Hero Reconsidered". Also Kenneth Roberts' novels, "Arundel", and "Rabble in Arms" are MUST reads.
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