Treacherous Beauty; Peggy Shippen, the Woman behind Benedict Arnold's Plot to Betray America

Jacob, Mark, and Case, Stephen H.

ISBN 10: 076277388X / ISBN 13: 9780762773886

Published by Lyons Press, Guilford, CT, 2012

About this Item

viii, 279, [1] pages. Illustrations. Chapter Notes. Bibliography. Index. Inscribed by both co-authors on the title page. Inscription reads: To Cokie Roberts. We read your book on Founder Mother. We agree with you about Peggy! Mark Jacob and Stephen Case, July 2012. Mark Jacob was the deputy Metro editor at the Chicago Tribune and was part of a team that won a Pulitzer Prize in 2001. Steven Case is a lawyer, entrepreneur, and professor at Georgetown University, He is a member of the board of the American Revolution Center. Peggy Shippen, a lovely young lady from Philadelphia, married a man twice her age, General Benedict Arnold, before he conspired to deliver the strategically vital forts at West Point, New York, to the British. Her story took a dramatic turn when the papers of British General Henry Clinton, which were acquired in the 1920's and donated to a library at the University of Michigan, implicated Peggy as a key player in the turncoat negotiations between her husband and the British. Histories of the Revolutionary War have long honored heroines such as Betsy Ross, Abigail Adams, and Molly Pitcher. Now, more than two centuries later, comes the first biography of one of the war's most remarkable women, a beautiful Philadelphia society girl named Peggy Shippen. While war was raging between England and its rebellious colonists, Peggy befriended a suave British officer and then married a crippled revolutionary general twice her age. She brought the two men together in a treasonous plot that nearly turned George Washington into a prisoner and changed the course of the war. Peggy Shippen was Mrs. Benedict Arnold. After the conspiracy was exposed, Peggy managed to convince powerful men like Washington and Alexander Hamilton of her innocence. The Founding Fathers were handicapped by the common view that women lacked the sophistication for politics or warfare, much less treason. And Peggy took full advantage. Peggy was to the American Revolution what the fictional Scarlett O'Hara was to the Civil War: a woman whose survival skills trumped all other values. Had she been a man, she might have been arrested, tried, and executed. And she might have become famous. Instead, her role was minimized and she was allowed to recede into the background-with a generous British pension in hand. In Treacherous Beauty, Mark Jacob and Stephen H. Case tell the true story of Peggy Shippen, a driving force in a conspiracy that came within an eyelash of dooming the American democracy.

Seller Inventory # 79164

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Treacherous Beauty; Peggy Shippen, the Woman behind Benedict Arnold's Plot to Betray America
• Publisher: Lyons Press, Guilford, CT
• Publication Date: 2012
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 076277388X
• ISBN 13: 9780762773886
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: First Printing [Stated].
• Condition: Very good
• Dust Jacket Condition: Very good
• Signed: Signed by Author(s)
• Seller catalogs:
  • West Point

About this title

Synopsis

Histories of the Revolutionary War have long honored heroines such as Betsy Ross, Abigail Adams, and Molly Pitcher. Now, more than two centuries later, comes the first biography of one of the war's most remarkable women, a beautiful Philadelphia society girl named Peggy Shippen. While war was raging between England and its rebellious colonists, Peggy befriended a suave British officer and then married a crippled revolutionary general twice her age. She brought the two men together in a treasonous plot that nearly turned George Washington into a prisoner and changed the course of the war. Peggy Shippen was Mrs. Benedict Arnold.

After the conspiracy was exposed, Peggy managed to convince powerful men like Washington and Alexander Hamilton of her innocence. The Founding Fathers were handicapped by the common view that women lacked the sophistication for politics or warfare, much less treason. And Peggy took full advantage.

Peggy was to the American Revolution what the fictional Scarlett O'Hara was to the Civil War: a woman whose survival skills trumped all other values. Had she been a man, she might have been
arrested, tried, and executed. And she might have become famous. Instead, her role was minimized and she was allowed to recede into the background--with a generous British pension in hand.

In Treacherous Beauty, Mark Jacob and Stephen H. Case tell the true story of Peggy Shippen, a driving force in a conspiracy that came within an eyelash of dooming the American democracy.

About the Author

Stephen H. Case is managing director and general counsel of Emerald Development Managers LP. He also is chairman of the board of Motors Liquidation Company, the non-government-owned remnant of General Motors Corporation. Case has been an adjunct professor at Georgetown University Law Center in Washington, D.C. To satisfy his personal curiosity, Case has made himself an expert in the Peggy Shippen story, reading all available histories that examine her story and tracking down Peggy's letters at various historical societies. He is a member of the board of the American Revolution Center.

Mark Jacob, deputy metro editor at the Chicago Tribune, was part of the team that won the 2001 Pulitzer Prize for explanatory journalism. He is author of the newspaper's "10 Things You Might Not Know" history feature. He is co-author of What the Great Ate.