Traitors & turncoats
Subtitle: twenty tales of treason from Benedict Arnold to Ezra Pound
By: Ian Crofton
Publisher: Quercus; Quercus History
Published: 2010
Place of publication: London
Language: eng
Number of pages: 190
ISBN-13: 9781848660113
Subjects: Subversive activities; Traitors; Defectors; History
Other titles: Traitors and turncoats
Description: 'If I had to choose between betraying my friend and betraying my country, I hope I should have the courage to betray my country.' So wrote the English novelist E.M. Forster in 1951. People have betrayed their country, or their friends, for all kinds of different reasons; and one man's traitor may be another man's hero, especially as those found guilty of treason have usually faced only one penalty: death. Betrayal for money is perhaps the most despicable level of treachery; not for nothing is the term 'Judas' applied with such contempt; others have earned the mark of treason for rebelling against established authority. The stories in Traitors and Turncoats range from a British seaman in the Second World War who sold information to the Germans for a pittance, to the White Rose gang's defiant campaign against Hitler; from the recusant terrorism of Guy Fawkes, to the abolitionist fury of John Brown; from the unwitting treason of Lady Jane Grey, to the deadly perfidy of Mata Hari. Thoroughly researched and grippingly told, these tales of treachery embrace cowardice and cupidity, high tension and terrible tragedy. Tarpeia, Charles I, Genrikh Yagoda, Tarquin the Proud, Benedict Arnold, Vichy collaborators, Coriolanus, William Wordsworth, Duncan Scott-Ford, Alcibiades, John Brown, The White Rose (Sophie Scholl), Arminius, Rose Greenhow, July Plot (Hitler), Judas, Roger Casement, Lord Haw-Haw, King John, Easter Rising rebels, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, Anne Boleyn, Mata Hari, Kim Philby, Lady Jane Grey, Norman Baillie-Stewart, Sammy 'the Bull' Gravano, Guy Fawkes, Pu Yi, Aldrich Ames.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: My birthplace hate I : Coriolanus : late 6th century; title: early 5th century BC; title: At the hot gates : Ephialtes : late 6th century BC; title: c.470 BC; title: For a handful of silver : Judas : c.10 BC?; title: c. AD 30; title: When heaven and earth are silent : Pierre Cauchon : 1371; title: 15 December 1442; title: Queen Anne the headless : Anne Boleyn : 1501 or 1507; title: 19 May 1536; title: Most miserable calamity : Lady Jane Grey : October 1537; title: 12 February 1554; title: Remember, remember : Guy Fawkes : 1570; title: 31 January 1606; title: Lost to all sense of honour : Benedict Arnold : 14 January 1741; title: 14 June 1801; title: Accountable to God alone : Louis XVI : 23 August 1754; title: 21 January 1793; title: Rebel Rose : Rose O'Neal Greenhow : c.1815; title: 1 October 1864; title: This most gallent gentleman : Roger Casement : 1 September 1864; title: 3 August 1916; title: Harlot, yes. Traitor, never! : Mata Hari : 7 August 1876; title: 15 October 1917; title: Philippe Le Gaga : Marshal Philippe Petain : 24 April 1856; title: 23 July 1951; title: Lord Haw-Haw : William Joyce : 24 April 1906; title: 3 January 1946; title: We are your bad conscience : Sophie Scholl : 9 May 1921; title: 22 February 1943; title: Pull down thy vanity : Ezra Pound : 30 October 1885; title: 1 November 1972; title: Don't kill my mommy and daddy : Julius and Ethel Rosenberg : 12 May 1918 (Julius), 28 September 1915 (Ethel); title: 19 June 1953 (both); title: The third man : Kim Philby : 1 January 1912; title: 11 May 1988; title: Over the DMZ : Joe Dresnok : b. 1941; title: A tale of two Germanys : Markus Wolf : 19 January 1923; title: 9 November 2006.