Benedict Arnold = traitor. The equation is simple, well known, and largely unquestioned. A leading military commander for the American rebels in the 1776 revolution, Arnold later defected to the British and tarnished his name for eternity. Barry K. Wilson’s revisionist biography of the rebel general attempts to reverse Arnold’s historical reputation by placing the general’s story in the context of Canada’s national evolution.

As an American commander, Arnold led a daring invasion of Canada in the early days of the revolution, managing to place the British garrison at Quebec under an extended seige. When he decided to break with the revolution, Arnold tried to deliver his one-time confidant, George Washington, into British hands.

He then accepted a commission in the British army and won a string of victories against rebel forces, most notably in Virginia. He also accepted a large payoff from the British, which he eventually used to establish himself in New Brunswick, where he became one of the impoverished colony’s prominent citizens. Most of Arnold’s business ventures failed and he later died in England, swamped in debt, though the family he left behind helped settle the Canadian prairies.

Throughout the book, Wilson castigates American historians for not seeing beyond Arnold’s treachery and Canadian historians for ignoring a giant in our midst. Neither argument is fully persuasive. Wilson’s thorough research and plodding journalistic style reveal Arnold as a man of half-finished projects and unfulfilled dreams. Arnold’s star shines brightest as a rebel traitor; in everything else he is an also-ran. His troubled legacy in business and politics does not fit easily into either nation’s historical canon.