Monday, May 31, 2021

Benedict Arnold backstory

Smithsonian magazine traces his history. "The American Revolution as it actually unfolded was so troubling and strange that once the struggle was over, a generation did its best to remove all traces of the truth."

Revolutions typically bring exactly the wrong people to power, and personal enmities matter more than the public good. We lucked out in the end, but the history isn't always pretty. "In limbo like this, Arnold was dangerously susceptible to seeing treason not as a betrayal of all he had held sacred but as a way to save his country from the revolutionary government that was threatening to destroy it."

1 comment:

Assistant Village Idiot said...

It was revealed in the last few years that Benjamin Franklin worked for the British against the formal interests of the colonial government. H reasoned, likely accurately, that there were certain favors and friendships we were going to need to survive after the war and did what he had to to make those happen. It was a calculated betrayal for our ultimate benefit.