TURNCOATS, TRAITORS AND HEROES

In this readable book the author of many other historical studies (two books on Christopher Marlows; Lewis & Clark, Partners in Discovery; Background to Glory, etc.) rites of spies, both British and American, in the War of Independence, of plots and ounter plots, narrow escapes, failures and successes. His sources, largely based on the apers of Sir Henry Clinton of the British Army, show many respected Americans spied for he British: Dr. Benjamin Church of Boston, Director of Hospitals for the Continental Army, for years was General Gage's secret agent; Major Thompson of the New Hampshire Militia; illiterate Ann Bates, ""the most successful female spy in history; "" Benedict Arnold and is wife, who were discovered, and others, undiscovered, who worked under Major Andre, the ritish Director of Espionage -- and many more. On the American side spies until late in war were often inefficient and badly briefed, like Nathan Hale, so poorly equipped for is job that capture was inevitable, or Paul Revere's ""gang"", who seem often to have duplicated each other's efforts; others were highly successful, the ""super-spy"" Enoch Crosby, Quakeress, Lydia Darragh, etc. Sometimes repetitious but containing much previously unpublished material, this book on somewhat unknown part of the American Revolution should appeal to addicts of spy stories and students of historical espionage. Footnotes are supplied in an end chapter; there are acknowledgements preceding the book itself; there is an index; and it should find a place in public and historical libraries and should form a good supplementary volume for courses in American history.