2022

5/29/22

Every once in a while I realize that you really only get a surface level view of history in school.  Unless you specifically major in it and take a deep dive.   Otherwise you're given some events and dates and names and you take them as gospel, but there's a lot of the hows and the whys and the what actually happeneds that kind of just get glossed over.  I mean, I kind of get it.  There are a lot of complex factors that lead to big world-wide events happening and it's likely different people wouldn't agree on exactly what happened or why it happened anyway.  All you have to do is look at current events to see that's the case.  We can't seem to agree on what's happening right now as it's happening and this stuff is going to be history in the future.  

The most recent example I can think of in terms of history is Benedict Arnold.  He popped up in the book I'm currently reading (Echo in the Bone... aka Book 7 of the Outlander series).  I realized that as much as he is synonymous with being a traitor, I don't really know all that much about what he actually did.  It seems like it would be a big dramatic thing that we should know all the details about, but all we really know is he's a traitor.

Well, upon reading a little more about him I now know he was a distinguished military officer on the American side of the Revolutionary War.  It seems to be a bit unclear as to what actually made him switch sides, but after being given command of West Point by George Washington, he plotted to hand it over to the British.  His scheme was discovered before he could do so and he ended up fleeing to Britain.  I guess he did end up leading British forces against the Americans in at least one battle afterward, but he was never caught by the Americans or punished or anything.  He lived in London until he died in 1801 more or less of natural causes.  

In some ways his story feels a little anticlimactic, although I suppose it's a pretty big deal for a general to switch sides in a war.  Still, until reading about this I can honestly say I never knew any of it.  I don't remember learning any of the details in school, just that Benedict Arnold was a traitor.  It's kind of crazy.