Secrets of a Revolution

Now that you know my magazine reading habits, here's what I found interesting in my reading this morning from US News and World Report.

- Benedict Arnold chose to "turn coat" after becoming disillusioned with the war's progress, feeling wary of the civilian leaders and then feeling betrayed by them himself. As a historian says, "he grew to feel that turning back to England would be the best course for the country."

- Many soldiers during the long fight for independence were not motivated by devotion to liberty. Washington himself got angry at times with the fact that men would leave after a few months of enlistment. Justin Ewers writes, "The high-minded middle-class farmers went home, and a new army was formed, made up mostly of poor, propertyless laborers, unmarried men in their early 20s who took up arms not to defend some abstract ideal but because they were offered money and land."

- I didn't realize the extent to which we are indebted to France for our Independence. Without their money, supplies and naval aid it is uncertain if we could have won our war. We can now call our French fries Freedom fries for a completely different reason . . .