Explores the career of Benedict Arnold as patriot and soldier and his treasonous decision and betrayal during the Revolutionary War.

A study of the life and character of the brilliant Revolutionary War general who deserted to the British for money.

While most biographies of Arnold concentrate on his revolutionary exploits and subsequent treason, Wilson explores his role in Canadian history and the routes that brought him to Canada. He takes the reader into rural Quebec in the 1760s and 1770s when Arnold toured the area as a Yankee trader and goes behind the scenes in 1775-76 when Arnold's American forces almost captured Quebec after an amazing trek through the Maine wilderness. Wilson explores Arnold's business exploits in Saint John, New Brunswick, the emerging Loyalist port town where for six years Arnold commanded an international trading network before returning to England. Written for those interested in unexpected tales from Canada's colourful history, Benedict Arnold follows Arnold's life from the battlefields of New England to the siege of Quebec, from the high seas to the day-to-day details of running a trading company in Saint John. Wilson offers a detailed, sometimes sympathetic, portrait of this controversial and complex man.

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

This landmark biography stands as an invaluable antidote to the historical distortion surrounding the life of Benedict Arnold.

Biography of the Revolutionary War patriot that turned traitor and fought for the British against the colonists.

In graphic novel format, tells the story of Benedict Arnolds heroism and betrayal during the American Revolution.