Valiant Ambition: George Washington, Benedict Arnold, and
the Fate of the American Revolution, by Nathaniel Philbrick,
is an intelligent and readable account of Benedict Arnold’s career.
Rather than the Arnold of myth, Philbrick
delves into the complicated motivations of the man. Arnold was a bundle of contradictions. He was brave nearly to recklessness, held his
personal honor in high esteem, while at the same time suffering a persecution
complex (sometimes with just cause) and an overestimation of his talents.
Philbrick’s thesis is that Arnold’s treason was the cause
that rallied the stalled American Revolution.
That is debatable, of course.
Washington’s overall goal was to fight the British in a war of
attrition; to grind them away in the wild interior of American. I’m not sure if Arnold’s defection helped or
hurt that strategy.
Regardless, Philbrick’s book paints the characters
of the American Revolution in subtle and detailed shades. We think we know these men and women;
Philbrick throws this into doubt.
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