The Tragedy of Benedict Arnold, Joyce Lee Malcolm
The Tragedy of Benedict Arnold, Joyce Lee Malcolm
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The Tragedy of Benedict Arnold
An American Life

Author: Joyce Lee Malcolm

Narrator: Paul Boehmer

Unabridged: 14 hr 58 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 06/28/2019


Synopsis

A vivid and timely re-examination of one of young America's most complicated figures: the war hero turned infamous traitor, Benedict Arnold.

Proud and talented, history now remembers this conflicted man solely through the lens of his last desperate act of treason. Yet the fall of Benedict Arnold remains one of the Revolutionary period's great puzzles. Why did a brilliant military commander, who repeatedly risked his life fighting the British, who was grievously injured in the line of duty, and fell into debt personally funding his own troops, ultimately became a traitor to the patriot cause?

Historian Joyce Lee Malcolm skillfully unravels the man behind the myth and gives us a portrait of the true Arnold and his world. There was his dramatic victory against the British at Saratoga in 1777 and his troubled childhood in a pre-revolutionary America beset with class tension and economic instability. We witness his brilliant wartime military exploits and learn of his contentious relationship with a newly formed and fractious Congress, fearful of powerful military leaders, like Arnold, who could threaten the nation's fragile democracy.

About Joyce Lee Malcolm

Joyce Lee Malcolm is a professor at George Mason University School of Law. She is the author of Guns and Violence, Peter's War, and To Keep and Bear Arms. She lives in Alexandria, Virginia.


Reviews

Goodreads review by William

Getting into Arnold's Head...and Character More than most books on Benedict Arnold, you’ll find this one to be quite sympathetic, extensively exploring the possible rationale for his act of treason, making him out to be something of a talented good guy who made a mistake, ok, a big mistake, a "tragic......more

Goodreads review by J.R.

Benedict Arnold should have been one of the great military heroes of the United States. Instead, circumstance and the jealousy of lesser men made him a traitor to the country he loved. Malcolm doesn't condone Arnold's treason, but presents evidence--including newly discovered primary documents--to he......more