In the summer of 1776, Washington's Continental Army suffered a desperate defeat in the face of the British Empire's unprecedentedly powerful naval invasion and had to withdraw from New York. Meanwhile, Hua

In the summer of 1776, Washington's Continental Army suffered a desperate defeat in the face of the British Empire's unprecedentedly powerful naval invasion and had to withdraw from New York. Meanwhile, Washington's talented general Benedict Arnold blocked the Advance of the British Army with miraculous victory on the U.S.-Canada border, saving the nascent United States from collapse. But in 1780, the continental army's right-hand man lost faith in the cause of the American Revolution and turned to the British, which made him a major stain on the history of the American Revolutionary War. By combining detailed historical documents with meticulous geographical investigation, Nathaniel Philbrick reconstructs Benedict Arnold's life from a famous general to a traitor, and unfolds an epic of the North American War of Independence written by ordinary people rather than sages and heroes.