Review
"Ronald offers a detailed look at the British officer best known for having persuaded Benedict Arnold to betray the American Revolution."
Publishers Weekly January 2019
"Dr. D. A. B. Ronald has done an admirable job of constructing a biography of John Andre ... one fascinating aspect of Ronald’s text is that it is written from the British perspective, rarely the case in literature about the American Revolutionary War."
New York Journal of Books Jan 2019
"This is a nicely balanced work that takes time to assess what in André's psychology and background led him to make the choices he did. The biography is well researched, and it's clear Ronald is passionate about his subject."
Nicki J. Markus
"The unfortunate Major André's life was short, and I had thought that every aspect of it had been discussed many times before. However Dr Ronald's research has been painstaking and meticulous, and he has uncovered crucial new information regarding influences on Andre's life; the misfortunes of his father; the patronage of Colonel Prescott early in his military career, and his time in Germany. Though there will always be controversy on how much Benedict Arnold engineered events at Stony Point and subsequent occurrences, this book must surely be the definitive account of André’s life. His name will ever be linked with that of Arnold in a juxtaposition of Honour and Ignominy.”
Major J. E. A. Andre
"A valuable picture of a fine young officer, with some interesting insights into the events and a look at English and American military, social, and cultural life in the period."
StrategyPage
"Ronald proves an exceptional biographer and has unquestionably drafted the definitive account of André’s life, leaving the reader eager and hopeful for future works."
The Colonial Review
"...Ronald does a tremendous job in portraying not only how André was treated as a prisoner of war but also how Patriot civilians dealt with the unexpected influx of British prisoners."
Journal of the American Revolution
“Copiously documented and rich with contemporary quotes, The Life of John André reads like a tense spy novel as André, turncoat Benedict Arnold, and Arnold’s alluring young wife plot through multiple machinations and betrayals to strike ‘a blow of importance’ that will undo America’s revolution. Along the way, Ronald illuminates a role for André in British colonial strategy far greater than generally appreciated by even the most ardent of Revolutionary War aficionados.”
Walter R. Borneman, author of American Spring: Lexington, Concord, and the Road to Revolution
About the Author
Dr D. A. B. Ronald has published several books, Young Nelsons: Boy Soldiers during the Napoleonic Wars (2009), and Youth, Heroism and War Propaganda: Britain and the Young Maritime Hero 1754–1820 (2015). Prior to becoming an academic and full-time writer, he ran his own company as an investment banker in the City of London. His acknowledged academic expertise in the realm of the ‘young hero’ makes him uniquely qualified to write this long overdue new biography.
