Traitors : History's Greatest Turncoats, From Judas Iscariot to the Men Who Plotted to Kill Hitler

One man's traitor may be another man's hero . . . A history of well-known and more obscure traitors that exposes some of the biggest backstabbing, treachery and deceit across the annals of time. '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 often a traitor to one person is a friend to another, especially as those found guilty of treason have historically 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 range from a British seaman in the Second World War who sold information to the Nazis for a pittance, to the White Rose gang's defiant campa