The Renunciation

The Unmaking of an American Hero

He gave the republic everything. It gave him nothing. So he sold his honor to the enemy—for a price he would never collect.

Philadelphia, 1779. Benedict Arnold, hero of Quebec and Saratoga, limps into his new command as military governor. His leg is permanently shattered. His debts are crushing—£12,000 owed, with creditors losing patience. Congress still refuses to reimburse expenses from campaigns where he spent his own fortune keeping soldiers alive.

Then comes the court-martial. For issuing a trading pass. For decisions made in good faith. The verdict: guilty. The sentence: public reprimand from George Washington, the last man Arnold respected.

"I trusted you," Washington writes. But trust doesn't pay debts. And Arnold's young wife Peggy—beautiful, calculating, experienced in British intelligence from the occupation—whispers a simple truth: "Loyalty should be reciprocal."

The British offer is explicit: twenty thousand pounds. A fortune. Enough to eliminate every debt, secure his family's future, make survival possible. All for one thing—West Point. The fortress controlling the Hudson River. The strategic key to the war.

Arnold tells himself comfortable lies. That he's being practical, not treasonous. That he's ending a futile war, not betraying Washington's trust. That the intelligence he's selling won't really harm anyone. That the defenses he's systematically weakening are just tactical adjustments.

But the lies require constant maintenance. The fear never stops. And when a British officer is captured with papers documenting everything, Arnold has one hour to decide: face the noose, or flee down the Hudson as America's most infamous traitor.

From the author of The Secret History of Benedict Arnold: Book Two chronicles the psychological horror of a year spent becoming a traitor—the grinding fear, the systematic self-deception, the mounting paranoia, and the ultimate bitter irony: he destroyed himself for a conspiracy that failed before it could succeed.

For readers who loved Hilary Mantel's morally complex historical portraits, Robert Harris's political thrillers, and anyone who's wondered: what actually drives a hero to betrayal?

The answer is more disturbing than villainy: mathematics, resentment, and the human capacity to believe comfortable lies.