The British Are Coming: The War for America, Lexington to Princeton, 1775-1777

The Revolution Trilogy #1

by Rick Atkinson

From the bestselling author of the Liberation Trilogy comes the extraordinary first volume of his new trilogy about the American Revolution

Rick Atkinson, author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning An Army at Dawn and two other superb books about World War II, has long been admired for his deeply researched, stunningly vivid narrative histories. Now he turns his attention to a new war, and in the initial volume of the Revolution Trilogy he recounts the first twenty-one months of America’s violent war for independence. From the battles at Lexington and Concord in spring 1775 to those at Trenton and Princeton in winter 1777, American militiamen and then the ragged Continental Army take on the world’s most formidable fighting force. It is a gripping saga alive with astonishing characters: Henry Knox, the former bookseller with an uncanny understanding of artillery; Nathanael Greene, the blue-eyed bumpkin who becomes a brilliant battle captain; Benjamin Franklin, the self-made man who proves to be the wiliest of diplomats; George Washington, the commander in chief who learns the difficult art of leadership when the war seems all but lost. The story is also told from the British perspective, making the mortal conflict between the redcoats and the rebels all the more compelling.

Full of riveting details and untold stories, The British Are Coming is a tale of heroes and knaves, of sacrifice and blunder, of redemption and profound suffering. Rick Atkinson has given stirring new life to the first act of our country’s creation drama.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, American History, American Revolution, Military History, American Revolutionary War, War

787 pages, Kindle Edition

First published May 14, 2019

About the author

Rick Atkinson is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of seven works of history, including The Long Gray Line, the Liberation Trilogy (An Army at Dawn, The Day of Battle, and The Guns at Last Light), and The British Are Coming, the first volume of the Revolution Trilogy. His work as a historian and journalist has won numerous awards, including three Pulitzer Prizes.

Reviews

[Matt · Rating 5 out of 5]

“This would not be a war between regimes or dynasties, fought for territory or the usual commercial advantages. Instead, what became known as the American Revolution was an improvised struggle between two peoples of a common heritage, now sundered by divergent values and conflicting visions of a world to come. Unlike most European wars of the eighteenth century, this one would not be fought by professional armies on flat, open terrain with reasonable roads, in daylight and good weather. And though it was fought in the age of reason, infused with Enlightenment ideals, this war, this civil war, would spiral into savagery, with sanguinary cruelty, casual killing, and atrocity…”
- Rick Atkinson, The British Are Coming: The War for America, Lexington to Princeton, 1775-1777

Simply put: Rick Atkinson is the best narrative historian I’ve ever read.

While all his books are good, his Liberation Trilogy, focused on the American Army in World War II, operates at an entirely different level. It is the WWII equivalent of Shelby Foote’s magisterial The Civil War: A Narrative. The three magnificent volumes (An Army at Dawn; The Day of Battle; and The Guns at Last Light) are really the holy grail of historical writing, combining impeccable research, sound judgment, and gorgeous prose to give you a saga as sweeping, enveloping, and memorable as anything Tolstoy has to offer.

In The British Are Coming, Atkinson is once again operating at the peak of his craft, delivering the first in a proposed three-volume series on the American Revolution. Spanning the years from 1775 to 1777, Atkinson delivers a mainly-military history, covering the opening battles of Lexington and Concord; the ill-advised invasion of Canada; and the disastrous American defeat at Long Island. Though the storyline tends to be depressing if you are cheering for the rebellion, The British Are Coming concludes with Washington’s victorious trifecta of First Trenton, Second Trenton, and Princeton.

I’m not exactly sure how to describe the alchemical process by which Atkinson transforms a distant, myth-enshrouded event into something, immediate, vital, and exciting. If I did, I would probably bottle that formula and retire to the Seychelles. All I know is that he amasses a staggering amount of information – including small, yet memorable details – and weaves all that material into a coherent whole that shifts easily from the strategic to the tactical, from King George III to the lowliest (literate) private.

(An example of a small, memorable detail: When quoting a Washington letter from January 1777, shortly after his successful crossing of the Delaware, Atkinson points out that the American commander had mistakenly dated the order January 1776. This is not only relatable – I am usually misdating things until April of each new year – it is a subtle way of portraying the stress and time-pressures under which Washington operated).

This is a book that gives you all aspects of the war. For instance, early on, Atkinson discusses battle-tech in the 1700s, and how it relates to the legend of the American marksman, especially in the war’s first battles:

The limits of the musket even in close combat were clear enough after the daylong battle [of Lexington and Concord]. Later scholars calculated that at least seventy-five thousand American rounds had been fired, using well over a ton of powder, but only one bullet in almost three hundred had hit home. The shot heard round the world likely missed. Fewer than one militiaman in every ten who engaged the column drew British blood, despite the broad target of massed redcoats. A combat bromide held that it took a man’s weight in bullets to kill him…

Just as important are the characters.

No matter how hard a modern historian tries, the American Revolution will never completely shed its fable-like quality. There will always be something a bit godlike and distant about George Washington.

This is not helped by the fact that Washington and his contemporaries lived before the age of photography, meaning that we have to rely on stylized paintings to get an understanding of how they looked. With all due regard to Charles Peale and other artists of the age, many of the portraits look like mirrored images, featuring pasty-skinned, double-chinned, grim-faced old men, all sharing the same wig. They look like caricatures, rather than humans.

Atkinson, though, is able to paint them with words, so that they come alive before the mind’s eye. He does not engage in any profound revisionism (as he did with Mark Clark’s reputation in The Day of Battle), but he sure delivers a precise thumbnail sketch of most of the important participants. For instance, there is this witty description of General Charles Lee:

So slender that he seemed to lack shoulders, he had a receding chin, high forehead, tiny hands, and small, deep-set eyes; to call Lee homely was to insult homely men. “His nose is so large,” a German officer wrote, “that its shadow darkens the other half of his face.” Despite the fancy uniforms, he was habitually unkempt and reputedly owned but three shirts, each in such disrepair that he’d named them Rag, Tag, and Bobtail. The dogs trailed him everywhere, including a favorite Pomeranian…who sometimes sat with him at table, where they communed in what he called “the language of doggism…”

It almost goes without saying – though I will say it anyway – that Atkinson delivers one heck of a set piece.

[Colonel Johann] Rall tried again to marshal his men…But the day was lost. American soldiers flocked through the cross streets to take firing perches in cellars, upper windows, and along the fence at Pott’s tanyard by the bark house and stone currying shop. Chipping their flints for a clean surface, picking out touchholes, and drying their priming pans, they fired, reloaded, and fired again, deliberately targeting officers…The clap of musketry echoed down King Street as hundreds of pullets pinged off walls, cobbles, and headstones. Wounded men dragged themselves into alleys and parlors; others bled to death in the gutter…

In all honesty, when I first heard that Atkinson was heading to the American Revolution for his next project, I was vaguely disappointed. To be sure, there is space on my bookshelf for a massive, multi-volume military history of the Revolution. That said, a lot of fine authors – hell, great authors – have already tackled this period. I was hoping that Atkinson would get a bit more ambitious, and deliver the comprehensive-yet-accessible-and-also-brilliant trilogy on the Vietnam War(s) that we really need.

Still, I knew that whatever Atkinson did next, he’d do it well. In that, I was correct. Nonetheless, The British Are Coming has one major flaw: It is entirely uninterested in how the American Revolution began in the first place. There is a brief prologue set in 1773, with King George reviewing his fleet. In that prologue, there is some brief talk about taxes and a tea party. Aside from that, however, there is absolutely zero discussion about how the American colonies, bound by heritage and tradition to the British Empire, came to engage in such vicious bloodletting with each other. To my mind, the origins of the Revolution is the most fascinating aspect of the whole tale. For Atkinson, though, it is not even an afterthought, since it lacks the predicate thought.

The most glaring example of Atkinson’s aversion to context is in the way he barely mentions the Seven Years’ War/French and Indian War, fought between Britain and France from 1754 to 1763. This global conflict was the necessary and sufficient condition of the American Revolution. It is related to the Revolution in the same manner that the First World War relates to the Second. Yet when Atkinson mentions it, he usually refers to it, almost disdainfully, as “the French war.” This is super odd! It’s like calling the First World War “the Austrian war.” It diminishes a massive conflict that killed hundreds of thousands of people and literally redrew the maps of earth.

This is not a deal breaker by any means. Yet it bothers me. Atkinson is once again well on his way to creating a monumental literary masterpiece. But he has baked into it a tremendous flaw. It is disappointing to have such a vigorous recreation of epochal battles, without providing any insight into why the muskets were shouldered in the first place. It is probably too late to rectify this authorial decision. Thus, no matter how good his trilogy might be – and based on the first entry, it should be tremendous – it will not be the one-stop shop of the American Revolution, despite its prodigious length. (The British Are Coming has 564 pages of text).

In other words, you’ll have to leave some extra space on your bookshelf, because even when you’ve finished, there will be unanswered questions.

[Jeffrey Keeten · Rating 5 out of 5]

”The odds were heavily stacked against the Americans: no colonial rebellion had ever succeeded in casting off imperial shackles. But, as Voltaire had observed, history is filled with the sound of silken slippers going downstairs and wooden shoes coming up.”



Whenever I read about the Amercian Revolution, I’m always struck by the enormity of the task our founding fathers were facing. They were not prepared for war, not in the least. They had no navy, no standing army, very few officers with military experience, a slipshod government, and they lacked any kind of plan as to how the war was to be won.

And yet, somehow, despite the odds, they prevailed.

But I’m getting ahead of myself. I guess it isn’t a spoiler to say that the rebels do win the war, but with this first of three volumes, Rick Atkinson is only covering 1775-1777, and believe me, these were dire years, fraught with disaster.

Atkinson’s description of the Battle of Lexington and Concord is perhaps one of the best and most vivid I’ve ever read. He has this wonderful knack of putting in details that other historians would have never discovered or would have felt were too insignificant to include in the text. ”With their wet shoes squelching at more than a hundred steps per minute, their pace approached four miles an hour. Past apple and plum orchard they tramped, past smokehouses and cider mills and oblique driftways that led into cow pastures. The heavy footfall rattled pewter dishes on dressers and in cupboards, and an eight year old boy, awake when he should have been sleeping, later recalled a wondrous sight on the road outside his window: a long bobbing column of red, ‘like a flowing river,’ sweeping northwest beneath the gibbous moon.”

What Atkinson does here, with this wonderful piece of writing, is put the reader on that road with the redcoats in the mud, and then he pulls back in a 3D panorama and shares with us this evocative, gobsmacked observation by this 8 year old boy. The thought of the thunderous sound of a river of red sends shivers down my spine.

I can only imagine the courage it took for those colonial men to stand out there on that village green, facing this lobsterbacked behemoth of professional soldiers, who not only outnumbered them but were better trained and better armed. I can also feel the fear of those British regulars who had to march back down that road to Boston with rebel snipers hitting them from every fence line and stand of trees. The colonials learned very quickly to avoid fighting the British standing in the open like tin pins waiting to be slaughtered.

General Hugh Percy made a very astute tactical decision not to try and cross the bridge over the Charles River, but ferry his troops with boats back to Boston. The rebels were lying in wait at that bridge in large numbers, and the slaughter would have been disastrous for the British. ”Had the column not veered away, a senior British general later concluded, ‘there would have been an end that day of British government in America.’”

I doubt that George III would have had his toy soldiers pack up and come home, but it would have been a very clear early victory for the rebels that would have brought men flocking to the banner for freedom in droves.

This was a serendipitous bit of fortune for the British, but most of those moments of near disaster would belong to the Americans. There were numerous times when the British were on the verge of destroying the rebel army, and, through the fickleness of fate or an overly cautious decision by the British leadership or a stealthy retreat by the rebels, who frequently seemed to just vanish into the mist, the war could have easily been over within the first few years, if not months.

What if the British had captured George Washington? It is hard to even think of a successful conclusion to the conflict without THE founding father at the head of our army. What if the Continental Congress had replaced Washington? It was bandied about; after all, he was losing battle after battle. The importance of his victory at Trenton can not be overemphasized. Not only did it shore up support with the French, but it also reaffirmed the faith of Washington’s supporters. There was also the treachery of General Charles Lee and General Horatio Gates, who plotted endless behind Washington’s back, each feeling they were better qualified to lead the colonial army. If they had spent as much time trying to defeat the British as they had trying to discredit Washington, the war may very well have ended much sooner.

The Battle for Lake Champlain (or Valcour Island) is one of the more enthralling David and Goliath stories of the war. General Benedict Arnold might have summed up the dire circumstances best with his assessment of the situation. ”When you ask for a frigate, they give you a raft.” The Revolutionary War was fought on the cheap and had to be, as the Continental Congress was frequently existing on fumes. Arnold didn’t win this battle, but he certainly didn’t lose it either, only because of that much vaunted audacity that left the British wondering if they had been fighting a ghost all along.

Atkinson does a very good job describing this battle, but Nathaniel Philbrick devotes more ink to it in Valiant Ambition: George Washington, Benedict Arnold, and the Fate of the American Revolution and by doing so brings it more vividly to life. In my opinion, Benedict Arnold is the most fascinating person of the Revolutionary War. ”Restive and audacious, he was ‘as brave a man as ever lived,’ in one comrade’s estimation as fine a battle captain as America would produce that century, a man born to lead other men in the dark of night. Yet he would forever be an enigma, beset with both a gnawing sense of grievance and the nattering enmity of lesser fellows. His destiny, as the historian James Kirby Martin later wrote, encompassing both ‘the luminescent hero and the serpentine villain.’”

At least here in volume one of this trilogy, we can sit back and enjoy Arnold’s exploits. The disastrous decision he made that forever tainted his legacy was still a few years away. He was a complicated man, bedevilled by his enemies, hampered by his own pride, and sorely missed by Washington for the latter part of the war.

I was shocked to learn about the staggering number of confrontations that occurred during the first two years of the war. ”Combatants had fought more than 450 military actions and 90 naval skirmishes, according to a tally by the historian Howard H. Peckham. American casualties now approached 9,000, almost a third of them killed or wounded; of the 6,500 Americans captured, an unconscionable number would die in British prisons.”

There is so much more I wish I could talk about. I could go on and on expressing my enjoyment of Atkinson’s descriptions of each encounter between the rebels and the British, but the idea is to encourage all of you to go read this book, not to indulge myself in my own interpretations and speculations about the plethora of interesting facts that were part of every aspect of the war.

If you are a professional or amateur historian, you will find this overview an edifying and enjoyable experience. If you know very little about the Revolutionary War, this will make for a very good start in your exploration of this frankly world phenomenon, where a rabble of men gain their freedom by continuing to fight despite the string of demoralizing defeats and the overwhelming odds they faced against an 18th century superpower. The beacon of freedom did not come into existence easily, and we certainly should forever remember that we are not just Americans. We are a conglomeration of all nations. ”Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

Here be one of the wretched refuse whose ancestors washed up on your shores before the Revolutionary War.

We have worked too long. We have come too far. We mustn’t ever forget who we are.

If you wish to see more of my most recent book and movie reviews, visit http://www.jeffreykeeten.com
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[Lorna · Rating 5 out of 5]

The British are Coming: The War for America, Lexington to Princeton, 1775-1777 is a meticulously and deeply researched history of the American Revolution by renowned historian Rick Atkinson. This first volume of the anticipated Revolution Trilogy was riveting as you watch the struggling Continental Army up against the mighty and formidable forces of the British Army and Royal Navy dispatched by King George III. This is the story of the newly formed colonies in America and their struggle, not only for freedom, but to forge a new democratic nation. Atkinson describes the first twenty-one months of the American Revolution with the battles at Lexington and Concord, to those at Trenton and Princeton, told in painful detail. We see each of these battles, not only from the point of view of the generals to the soldiers, but to those waiting at home. This was a fast-paced book as we see well known characters from our history to the more obscure. I, for one, will be anxiously awaiting Volume II of this remarkable tale of America's early and laudable history.

"Still, the British Army and Royal Navy had been driven off by a rabblement of farmers and shopkeepers. Led by low-born ascendant men like the plowman Israel Putnam, the anchorsmith Greene, and book vendor Knox. Washington had displayed persistence and integrity, as well as political agility. The revolutionary hour had passed, to be succeeded by other hours, some of them dreadful."

"That a large, balding American, renowned across Europe as a scientist, diplomat, and revolutionary, would remain inconspicuous as he trotted through the French provinces defied probability. Whatever the great man's purpose, Paris was alert and giddy while awaiting his arrival. When word spread in London of Franklin's advance in on Paris, British stocks fell."

"'Common Sense' had helped nudge Americans toward their declaration of independency, converting fence straddlers into patriots and patriots into radicals."

"These are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of this country. But he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph." -- Thomas Paine

[Tony · Rating 4 out of 5]

Anyone who has read Rick Atkinson's The Liberation Trilogy will understand that when he begins another massive examination of another war, the reader must follow. And right away.

And so, although I had not scheduled the Revolutionary War on my reading journey this year, and although the Revolutionary War is not my war, I really had no choice but to read this immediately. I was not disappointed.

This is a military history, but the story would not be complete without Ben Franklin's seducing the French. He is but one of many wonderfully drawn characters: Nathan Hale, Marie Antoinette, Beaumarchais, Ezra Lee (and the Turtle), and Admiral Howe ("Give us Black Dick," his sailors boasted.).

And George Washington, of course. I was reminded of his many failures before he found genius. And also that he had survived smallpox, which many did not, the disease killing more than bullets did.

Too, we think of this War as American Rebels versus British soldiers, but mostly the locals were fighting Germans. Thus, an American assault would be met with cries of Der Feind! Der Feind! Heraus!

I like the cadence of Atkinson's writing: The day would be famous before it dawned. . . .

And I like his understanding of military matters:

-- Proverbially no plan survives contact with the enemy, but this plan came unstitched before the first gunshot.

-- Inspiration is rare enough in the tumult of battle, and genius rarer still.

This first volume tells the bleak opening battles and concludes with the victories at Trenton and Princeton. Game on. Near that end, Atkinson shares a sardonic letter from London to America, dated January 1, 1777:

His Majesty intends to open this year's campaign with ninety thousand Hessians, Tories, Negroes, Japanese, Moors, Esquimaux, Persian archers, Laplanders, Feejee Islanders, and light horse. . . . Ye dumb-founded, infatuated, back-bestridden, nose-led-about, priest-ridden, demagogue-beshackled and Congress-becrafted independents, fly, fly, oh fly, for protection to the royal standard, or ye will be swept from the face of the earth.

Or not. I can't wait to see how this turns out.

[Anthony · Rating 4 out of 5]

Chaos, Courage and Revolution

Rick Atkinson is a solid historian. I thoroughly enjoyed his Pulitzer Prize-winning Liberation Trilogy based on World War II. Therefore when I turned to this book, I knew that I would get the same meticulous research, vivid prose and narrative skill. The British are Coming is the first volume in his Revolutionary War Trilogy and examines of the opening years of the American Revolution from the Boston Tea Party through to the Battle of Trenton, a pivotal moment in the fortunes of the war.

Atkinson’s storytelling excels in its balance between grand strategy and human-scale drama. He interweaves the perspectives of political leaders, generals, and common soldiers, drawing on primary sources like letters and diaries to bring the conflict to life. His depiction of iconic figures such as George Washington, King George III, and others is nuanced, showing their ambitions, flaws, and uncertainties. Even though Atkinson is an American he is careful to give a balanced view of both sides and their leaders. This is much appreciated.

The British are Coming offers a comprehensive account of key events from the battles of Lexington and Concord to the pivotal Battle of Princeton. Atkinson vividly describes the grueling conditions faced by soldiers, the brutality of the war, and the moral complexity of the conflict. The narrative avoids romanticising the revolution, instead presenting it as a desperate and often chaotic struggle.

The British are Coming’s prose are elegant and evocative. Atkinson paints scenes with cinematic clarity, whether he’s describing the chaos of battle, the desolation of winter encampments, or the political maneuvering behind the scenes. His ability to weave context into the narrative makes it accessible to both casual readers and serious historians.

Atkinson does occasionally prioritise narrative flow over analytical depth. While the book is rich in detail, some readers may feel that it focuses more on the ‘what’ than the ‘why’. Those looking for a deeply analytical or revisionist take on the American Revolution might find the book less satisfying. Additionally, the sheer amount of detail can occasionally slow the pace, particularly for readers unfamiliar with the period.

The British are Coming is an impressive achievement that captures the chaos, heroism, and heartbreak of the Revolutionary War’s early years. Atkinson’s command of language and history ensures that the book is both informative and compelling. It’s a recommended read from me for anyone interested in the American Revolution and sets a high bar for the next volumes in the trilogy.

[David C Ward · Rating 3 out of 5]

If everything is important, then nothing is. Writing history is as much about knowing what to leave out as to include in making a narrative or interpretation. Atkinson piles on the minute, close grained details of military operations - much of this is a recitation of material and logistics - in a way that loses the forest for not just the trees but the pine needles. The result makes the Revolution dull while also missing all the things that made it important including why it was fought at all. The sections on causation recite familiar events - Tea Party etc - and themes - English arrogance - but omits the incredible modern scholarship on 18th century politics, both English and American. I sense this is the kind of popular historical door stopper (like P Johnson, Goodwin, Chernow or Ambrose) that people buy but actually don’t finish reading; looks good on the coffee table.

[Chris · Rating 5 out of 5]

April 2025 marked the 250th anniversary of the start of serious hostilities between the colonials in North America and the British. So, I thought should reacquaint myself with the start of the Revolutionary War, and historian Rick Atkinson was a brilliant guide. It was fascinating to follow the conflict from Quebec City to Charleston, South Carolina, and -- in Atkinson's precise, robust prose -- see the conflict from the eyes of the leaders and soldiers on both sides. It's all here: Boston, Long Island, Lake Champlain, New York, New Jersey, and a a certain beleaguered general whose name we know well making the desperate gambit of crossing the Delaware River in the dead of night in the middle of winter.

[David Mc · Rating 5 out of 5]

Unlike other historical books on the American Revolution, this was the first time I’ve come across an evenhanded approach taking in both sides of the war. Despite having read a fair number of books on the Revolution, Atkinson’s detailed observations of people, places, battles, skirmishes, musketry, etc., provided large nuggets of information that were completely new to me. For that matter, the book gave wonderful insights into such varied figures as Charles Lee, Henry Knox, King George, William Howe, and an endless number of other famous and not-so-famous participants of the Revolution.

On top of everything else, Atkinson’s truly superb storytelling made many of the passages feel as if this was an action-filled novel of historical fiction. In this regard, despite having read various accounts of Trenton and Princeton, I still found myself at the edge of my seat as the author described Washington’s soldiers carefully crossing the icy Delaware on Christmas Day, which resulted in their surprise attack and victory over Hessian Troops. Indeed, although we’ve known for centuries how various battles of the Revolution turned out, Atkinson brings home the fact that such outcomes were totally uncertain at the time.

All in all, the book provided an excellent history of the first several years of the Revolution. Although the book was a whopping 787-pages in length, I’m already looking forward to reading the second book of this trilogy

[Dan · Rating 5 out of 5]

The British Are Coming by Rick Atkinson

Three thousand patients jammed the hospital at Fort George, thirty miles south of Ticonderoga, where hemlock boughs served for bedding. “In the name of God,” one physician pleaded, “what shall we do with them all?” Too often the answer was: bury them. A surgeon estimated that three hundred men had died there in just over a month. When inventories were taken of drug supplies in September, five artillery companies reported, “Medicines — none.”

In this excerpt that covers the Revolutionary War campaign in Quebec and Lake Champlain, led by a brave and brash Benedict Arnold, we see the misery and suffering from the cold and disease. Arnold and his forces had, against all odds, narrowly escaped through a bottleneck of the British Navy near the northern end of Lake Champlain.

While David McCullough and Ron Chernow might be considered the great biographers of the American Revolution, then it can be said that Rick Atkinson is on his way to becoming a great historian of the era as well.

Atkinson is best known for his WWII Liberation Trilogy for which he won multiple Pulitzer prizes. His book about West Point called The Long Gray Line is equally good in my opinion. The British are Coming is his first book in a planned three part series on the American Revolution. This book covers the early period of the American Revolution, from 1775 to 1777.

Atkinson’s writing can be described as amazingly rich in detail, not frequently overwrought with drama. It is generally campaign oriented so it may not be as heavily focused on characters but he still weaves the stories in a captivating way.

I feel that David McCullough’s highly personal biographical approach to history in ‘1776’ and ‘John Adams’ along with Chernow’s ‘Hamilton’ set the bar on Revolutionary War writing. Atkinson’s first book might do an even better job of capturing — on the larger canvas — of what is was like to be in the revolutionary war however. This book does more to educate than simply entertain. My thoughts were wandering while reading this work — there is a richness and novelty to the information he conveys that sparks my curiosity.

So there are twenty-two chapters in this book. First the bad. Not all of the chapters are really fresh. I found the coverage on Ben Franklin’s efforts lacked depth, see Walter Isaacson’s book Benjamin Franklin: An American Life for a better read. I found the chapters on the Long Island campaign to be a little weak, see McCullough’s 1776 for the best coverage. I also found Atkinson’s coverage of the south including Virginia to be largely absent, see Meacham’s book Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power. I also found the coverage on slavery to be lacking see Alan Taylor’s Pulitzer prize winning book called The Internal Enemy: Slavery and War in Virginia, 1772-1832

However I found his coverage on the outset of the war in Boston and Lexington, the first battle of the South in Norfolk, and the incursions into Canada to be superior to anything I have previously read in covering these topics.

Prologue: King George
Chapters 1 -4 The Beginning of the Revolution, Lexington and Boston
Chapter 7 Norfolk VA, first battle of the south
Chapter 8 Battle for Montreal and Quebec
Chapters 12 and 17 Canada, Lake Champlain

Additionally there is superb coverage on Benedict Arnold scattered throughout. Nathaniel Philbrick also wrote an excellent book about Arnold and Washington called Valiant Ambition.

Other historical nuggets I remember upon reading. England, at the end of the Seven Year’s War, gained the largest permanent transfer of territory in world history. But they reeled from the economic costs of that war. Within a few years the Naval fleet had fallen into disrepair and few new ships of the line were launched by the start of the Revolutionary War. This economic crisis of course led King George and parliament to raise taxes in many different incarnations that infuriated the colonists.

In his long life, King George never left the soil of England. We also learned that smallpox raged during the Revolutionary War killing more than 100,000 in the colonies that only measured a few million in population.

During the siege of the British forces in Boston, Americans would frequently make clandestine raids to set British bunkers on fire. Washington often rode out from Harvard, where he was staying at the Longfellow House, and climbed up Cobble Hill where he used his telescope or “spyglass” to monitor the British under siege.

Later when Washington’s troops were defeated in the Long Island campaign, nearly 40% of his troops were down with dysentery. Despite this, they evacuated in the dead of the night and had relatively few casualties despite a heavy rout by the British.

5 stars. Highly recommended. A note of caution if you haven’t read Atkinson — it might well take you twice as long as you might expect as the detail in his writing is quite dense.

[Brendan (History Nerds United) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Everything is a trilogy nowadays, even history books! However, unlike cash grabs, Rick Atkinson's The British Are Coming is a trilogy because otherwise you would not be able to lift the book. Seriously, it's a brick and it only gets to the first 21 months of the war.

If any of that sounds like a negative then I can assure you it is not. Atkinson is renowned for his military history including winning the Pulitzer for one of his books on World War II (his first trilogy). What readers need to know before tackling this book is fourfold. It is long. It is detailed. It is a narrative military history and it is amazing.

Atkinson's narrative is both detailed but not cumbersome. I am not sure how, but he is able to give short introductions to his characters without slowing everything down. While it is a military history, he also doesn't get into the minutiae of every battle. You won't hear much about the Continental Congress except as it pertains to the war and there isn't 100 pages devoted to Washington (or anyone else's) backstory. In this way, Atkinson can cover a tremendous amount of time and people while still feeling like he is telling you everything you need to know. Along the way, he dispels apocryphal tales (seriously, I learned so much made up stuff in grade school) and doesn't forget the regular soldier. There is quite a few looks into the life of a regular old grunt and it adds so much to the book. There is a reason Atkinson is considered such an exceptional author. This book is just another example.

[Ken · Rating 5 out of 5]

As histories go, a good one. Eminently readable, as they say, with chapters jumping from this front (say, Quebec) to that front (how's about Boston or New York?) to that front (Bad King George Trifecta in Not-So-Jolly-Olde).

Civil Wars are the nastiest, and the Brits considered this one of those oxymoronic messes. One of the earlier proofs that you can't win wars on another country's turf, especially if the "army" fights "unfair" (read: from behind rocks and trees instead of in the open in bright red coats).

The Brits brought their Hessian friends, too, a particularly despised tribe of fighter that, along with some Brits, had no problem with engaging in war's worst aspects (plunder, rape, etc.). Throw in Tories and the fact that many in those times thought mankind had reached its nadir, behavior-wise, and you about have the mess scoped.

What I like is the way Atkinson liberally leavens his narrative with quotes from regular soldiers' letters, etc. Sure, we hear from the Big Shots, too (Washington, Franklin, Gates, Arnold, etc.), but it's so nice to hear words from the mouths of militiamen---those common farmers and blacksmiths and tanners and coopers and carpenters that the Brits looked down their noses at because they couldn't possibly measure up to real soldiers. (In a word: wrong.)

Most interesting is just how inept many of the commands were, especially the British. Washington was no ace in the early going, either. He started to figure things out in New Jersey. Just as the book ends. With a few cannonballs lobbed at a Princeton College building.

The Ivy Leagues never had it so hot.

[Chris D. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rick Atkinson has written another masterpiece in this first volume of an expected trilogy on the American Revolution. The detail is wonderful, with illuminating details of both sides of the conflict. It was especially welcome to learn so much of the British side. Atkinson gives the reader so much on the logistics of the armies involved with the difficulties in providing the British Army with what they needed to prosecute the war.

It is a military history so the reader will need to go elsewhere for the political aspects or even for events that happened before 1775, but that is okay since the writing just sparkles off the page. If you enjoyed the World War II trilogy by Atkinson, you would certainly enjoy this wonderful first volume on the American Revolution.

[David Eppenstein · Rating 4 out of 5]

The history of our Revolution and Founding is among my favorite reading subjects and Mr. Atkinson has become an author of some interest and appeal for me. When it was announced that he was beginning a Revolution Trilogy there wasn't much doubt of my making a purchase of this first volume. Now that I have read this book I give it 4 stars because its quality is deserving of that rating. However I have to admit that I had some difficulty with the book and I think this is more a problem of the reader, me, than the author. This first volume covers the first 2 years of the Revolution, 1775-77, and uses 564 pages of text to do so. I have read a great deal about the Revolution and few of the books I have read that covered the entire Revolution needed that much paper to do the job and do it well. So the length did become an issue for me but my knowledge also was a problem. Since my reading has been rather extensive another history of the Revolution was like reading a mystery novel where you know the ending. All the excitement, drama, and mystery are diminished but that is my problem and not the fault of the author so my rating is as objective a judgment as I can give on what the author has accomplished in this history and that is quite a bit.

Again, the length of the book that only deals with the first two years of the Revolution did seem odd and then to think that there are two more books yet to come had me scratching my head. I could not imagine why Atkinson needed such a weight of pages to cover such a well traveled road. My hope was that he had more information, more detail, and better analysis than anybody else has had. Considering the popularity of the subject, however, I also thought that highly unlikely. I was, to an extent, wrong. Atkinson does travel the same road as all other authors but he does it far more comprehensively. I suspect that when this trilogy is completed it will be unnecessary for anybody to own another treatment of the history of the American Revolution.

This book didn't just cover the events of these two years. This book covered all the events in all three theaters of combat operations and did it in a fairly chronological order. Most histories will deal with one theatre or one battle while others will cover the whole Revolution but only the major events. This book covers the events leading up to the conflict as well as all the major combats and many obscure actions and events involving minor historical figures and does so in full satisfactory detail. Further, the author reports the events from the points of view of each side as well as the political developments in London. There is also a wealth of new detail both regarding the people involved on both sides which includes brief bios, their behavior in the field, and the problems facing them. One area that I enjoyed a great deal that gets some serious treatment is the logistics. The logistical demands and deficiencies of both armies is frequently recounted in detail. This information makes one wonder how the English could have seriously thought it possible to pursue this war at all. Of course the same information makes you wonder how in the heck the Americans could have thought to have started this war. Both sides were equally insane and the basis for this shared insanity is laid out in utterly complete detail in this book. It would appear that Mr. Atkinson is attempting to write a definitive history of the American Revolution and this first volume is a good foundation for what is surely to come.

[Joy D · Rating 5 out of 5]

“The column stretched for more than a mile, first rising east from the river, then turning sharply south onto Bear Tavern Road. As the road angled through dripping copses of hickory and black oak, soldiers draped handkerchiefs, greased rags, coat skirts, and blankets over their musket priming pans, to small effect. Whenever the march stalled momentarily, as night marches inevitably did, men fell asleep on their feet and had to be forcibly roused. Sergeants prodded the sick and lame who lingered by the roadside, but at least two soldiers fell behind and froze to death on the tableland that night.”

Rick Atkinson brings history to life in vivid detail in this first book of a planned trilogy about the American Revolutionary War. This book covers the initial battles of Lexington and Concord in 1776 and documents the course of the war by its military campaigns, ending this volume with the battles of Trenton and Princeton in 1777. It tells the story from both the British and the American perspectives, starting off in Great Britain with King George III reviewing his fleet.

The author highlights the talents of key players such as Henry Knox, Nathanael Greene, Charles Lee, Benjamin Franklin, Horatio Gates, and of course, George Washington; and on the British side Henry Clinton, Lord Cornwallis, Thomas Gage, Richard Howe, William Howe, and so many more on both sides of the conflict. Benedict Arnold makes an appearance in the Canadian campaign. It also covers the experiences of ordinary people living through this turbulent time, as documented in diaries, letters, and journals. It covers the significant roles of the Hessians and the French.

This is a book for people who want specifics. We get details of what they wore, ate, weather conditions, diseases they faced, difficulties in paying and retaining troops, horrible conditions suffered by the combatants, combat statistics, economic impact, counterfeiters, weapons, types of ships, supplies, shifting loyalties of the citizens depending upon which side occupied the and surrounding area, and so much more. I very much appreciated the maps, as well as the paintings and drawings included at the end.

Rick Atkinson’s narrative non-fiction is top rate. He excels at establishing an atmosphere, relating what happened and why, and portraying the human impact. It is a lengthy book and took me a long while to get through it, but I found it well worth my time. Highly recommended!

[Steve Smits · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a remarkable history of the first two years of the American Revolution. The research is deep and the topics covered are broad. Atkinson has chosen to write not only on the military campaigns but also the political currents at play in America, England and France,and on the personalities that shaped the decisions on both sides. The narrative is told in chronological order making it easy to follow the events as they unfolded and making the connections between various dimensions clear to see. One gets a clear understanding of the context that underlies the action taken by both sides in the early years of the conflict.

One of the problems of military histories, and I have read many, is the difficulty of following the movements and actions of combat, owing especially to lack of knowledge of terrain and of sorting out the confusion of multiple engagements happening simultaneously. Atkinson does an excellent job in making the diverse tactical positioning and clashes as clear as possible. In his descriptions of battles and skirmishes he reminds us of how brutal this war would be on its participants. He makes it plain how the British arrogantly underestimated the resolve and spirit of the rebels in the early years of the war. At the same time he notes the great difficulties Washington faced in organizing and sustaining a cohesive and sustained fighting force. One is also struck by his emphasis on how the shortcomings of logistics for both sides hampered greatly their ability to fight effectively.

Atkinson' prose is outstanding. and makes the read pleasurable. It should be known by prospective readers that this is not just a military history; it is very much as well a fascinating political and cultural look at the times .

This book is highly recommended. I eagerly await volumes two and three of the trilogy.

(I rceived this book through the Library Thing early reviewers program.)

[Tracey · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a well-written, meticulously researched, entertaining, non-fiction Revolutionary War book. It vividly describes the hardships, deprivation, and horrors of the war, and recounts the losses and triumphs of the battles fought, some of which are well-known, and others which are not. I enjoyed the tales of familiar historical figures, and learning interesting tidbits about them. I was fascinated by the stories and quotes from lesser known soldiers. Mr. Atkinson clearly presents the points of view of the Americans, the British, and the Hessians. I listened to the audio book, and Mr. George Newbern, who has a captivating voice, does an outstanding job narrating this military history.

[Henry · Rating 5 out of 5]

A magnificent and monumental history that covers the beginning of the American Revolution through the Battle of Princeton in January, 1777. This book is Volume I of what Atkinson anticipates will be his Revolution Trilogy. It is meticulously researched with almost 200 pages of notes and sources, and, of course, a detailed index. It is extremely well written. Atkinson has taken a story that everyone knows and fleshed it out with incredible detail that illuminates the drama from both the American and British perspectives. It reads like a historical novel, except that every single person and event in it is true. If you want to read an in depth history of the founding of this nation, read this book. I eagerly look forward to the next volumes, but I expect that based on Atkinson's dedication to research and the amount of source material he will have to delve into, it will be a while.

[Fred Jenkins · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a very good narrative history of the Revolution. This volume covers the beginnings from Lexington and Concord to Trenton and Princeton. Atkinson looks into a good many things beyond the battlefields: the personality of George III, British shipyards, the perils of sailing on the Atlantic, the manufacture of gunpowder, etc. His coverage shifts around from one theatre to another so that there are some discontinuities, although there is not really a better way to do it. His battle descriptions are very good, with an excellent grasp of both the terrain and the tactics. He even-handedly presents the screw-ups and atrocities of both sides, although the British clearly come off the worse. War is ugly, however you slice it.

There are many quotations from contemporary diaries and letters. Atkinson also provides brief biographical sketches of many of the leaders on both sides, which I found to be one of the most interesting features. There are many excellent maps and, for a popular account, a vast array of footnotes and bibliography. This is primarily an account of the war and much less of the politics and diplomacy involved. There is very little of the doings of the Continental Congress and a limited account of American envoys (Deane and Franklin) in France.

[Sean Smart · Rating 4 out of 5]

A masterful detailed account and the first volume in Atkinson’s planned series of Histories of the American Revolution/American War of Independence.

My only small issue was a perceived bias of the American author for the American rebels.
It seemed at times that the British were all fools and or rogues and all the Americans were fighting the British despite some references to Loyalists, when most figures show one third of Americans were rebels, one third were Loyalists and one third tried to stay neutral. And when the rebels won the war they burned out many of their Loyalist neighbours who resettled in British Canada.

So a good but heavy read. I look forward to the next volumes.

[Sonny · Rating 5 out of 5]

― “This would not be a war between regimes or dynasties, fought for territory or the usual commercial advantages. Instead, what became known as the American Revolution was an improvised struggle between two peoples of a common heritage, now sundered by divergent values and conflicting visions of a world to come.”
― Rick Atkinson, The British Are Coming: The War for America, Lexington to Princeton, 1775-1777

The British Are Coming is the first installment in a projected trilogy about the Revolutionary War by author Rick Atkinson, a former Washington Post journalist who has won Pulitzer Prizes in both history and journalism. It is a sweeping epic. For the most part, The British Are Coming is organized chronologically with the battles taking center stage: Lexington and Concord, Boston and Bunker Hill, Norfolk, the burning of Charlestown, Sullivan’s Island, New York City, Lake Champlain, and the American catastrophes at Quebec and Fort Washington, to the surprising and resounding victories at Trenton and Princeton. Yet, in addition to a superb military history, Atkinson also gives us an outstanding diplomatic history. In addition to Benjamin Franklin’s diplomacy in Paris to win French aid for the American cause, Atkinson gives us an excellent account of events in Europe: King George III inspecting his fleet at Portsmouth, British supply and shipping problems, as well as British recruitment efforts (the author spent a month at Windsor Castle in 2016 combing through the official and private papers of George III, courtesy of the queen herself, as well as a “vast trove” of government documents).

The author also gives the reader pleasingly new characterizations of the leading characters—an unsure George Washington, a pensive King George III, a courageous Benedict Arnold. In this way, he makes a familiar story about America new again. As one might expect, the book’s key figure is George Washington, whose determination and ability to act boldly made up for what he lacked in experience early in the campaign. His calm bearing and charisma inspired the farmers, frontiersmen, and shopkeepers who made up his army. Washington understood that the colonies could not win by directly confronting the British. His best strategy was to wear them down, fighting on their own terms and then retreat. “The British, after all, had to win the war; the Americans only had to avoid losing it,” Atkinson writes. Where Atkinson especially excels is in uncovering the experience of ordinary men and women caught up in the conflict. In his own inimitable way, Atkinson rescues the American Revolution from the sentimental stereotypes and bring the war to life as an ugly, violent, often barbaric war. While combining all of these aspects would be a challenge for most authors, Rick Atkinson weaves it all together seamlessly.

― “The time is now near at hand which must probably determine whether Americans are to be freemen or slaves.… The fate of unborn millions will now depend, under God, on the courage and conduct of this army.… Let us therefore animate and encourage each other, and show the whole world, that a freeman contending for liberty on his own ground is superior to any slavish mercenary on earth.”
― Rick Atkinson, The British Are Coming: The War for America, Lexington to Princeton, 1775-1777

Atkinson is a superb researcher (he does all of his own research). The exhaustive research involved is scholarship involved is impressive—his endnotes alone cover 133 pages. He makes good use of information from letters and journals to give the reader a sense of what it would have been like to walk in the shoes of both the war’s leaders and its lesser participants. But more importantly Atkinson is a master storyteller (“To say that Atkinson can tell a story is like saying Sinatra can sing…” Joseph Ellis) and a superb writer. Atkinson has considerable narrative talents and great powers of description (“[Atkinson has a] felicity for turning history into literature….” George Will, The Washington Post).

Rick Atkinson is emerging as one of America’s most talented writers and historians. The British Are Coming is frankly a superb masterpiece of history. Even if you have read considerably about the American Revolution, this book gives the reader a sense of discovering the American Revolution for the very first time. There is a newness to Atkinson’s narrative that surpasses any previous Revolutionary War narrative. Anyone reading it will be anxiously awaiting the next volume.

[Arthur · Rating 3 out of 5]

A 26 hour and 20 minute unabridged audiobook.

With devoting 26 hours to the first couple years of the war, I expected the author to get quite detailed. Which he certainly did, mostly. He certainly covered Lexington/Concord thoroughly, as well as Bunker Hill. But I sorta feel he condensed the battle of Brooklyn (he mentioned the before/after quite well, I just feel the tactics of the battle itself were not covered as well as they could have been). I admit a natural bias, being a Brooklyn native (and also why I refuse to call it to battle of Long Island).

What I liked the most was actually the coverage of the war from the British perspective, he covered both of course, but it's something that's been largely ignored in the books I've read on the subject in the past.

I liked this book well enough to eventually read the next in the series, but not well enough to do so soon.

[Bob Mayer · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great introduction to the Revolution; a war glossed over in many histories but which was unprecedented in many ways. This shows how a war that should have been no contest between a rag-tag group of amateurs took on the world's greatest military power. This first book in the series shows the early battles, including Long Island which would turn out to be the biggest engagement of the war and a defeat for George Washington. The characters come to life with great writing.

[Lucas · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book does an excellent job of covering the first few years of the Revolutionary War from all angles; British and American, General and foot soldier, military battles and political battles. I think the length is about right for such a formidable task. Key battles and characters are covered in detail without lingering too long on any one subject.

With so many people featured, no one figure is covered at the length of an individual biography, but the essence of many individuals are captured. I was particularly impressed by the depth that was provided on George Washington, who is often seen by historians as a bit steely and impenetrable. Washington went through a profound depression during the first few years of the war, and this is pulled into focus by some of the letters to his confidants that are quoted. He was commanding an army that was lacking men, supplies, order or experience. His ability was constantly questioned, and he made several costly mistakes in early battles. His life was constantly at risk and hope always felt nearly lost.

One person that I would have liked to see a more thorough examination of was King George III. He is featured in the book, and his position on continuing the war and breaking the rebellious spirit is documented, but there seems like more going on psychologically with him than is explained. For instance, the author references that George started to get very into farming and purchased numerous books about it. I would have liked more explanation of his personal travails and interests, and how they may have influenced his decision making.

The British side overall though is well covered, with detailed portrayals of General Howe and others. Although many Americans understand that the colonial army was greatly lacking in supplies and food, this book does a great job of highlighting some of the same issues for the British side. They essentially had to ship everything over the ocean, and ran into lots of problems doing so. Horses and men would be shipped over, and enormous percentages would die in transit. Other British challenges are given keen attention as well. The British truly had to find a way to win the war and crush the rebellious spirit of a fledgling nation, while the American side could win simply by not losing for long enough.

Another thing I enjoyed about the book was the incredible quotes that were used, ranging from Kant, to Voltaire, to Adam Smith. The first-hand accounts about post-battle medical attention really enliven the severity of the combat. If I had one quibble about the quotes it would be that John Adams, although admittedly a quote machine, is possibly over-quoted. His writings are referenced disproportionately throughout the book, even though in many cases he is an outside observer.

Overall though I found the book very enjoyable. I generally prefer biography to wide-ranging military history like this, but The British Are Coming is sufficiently well paced and shifting to stay interesting.

Note: I received an advanced copy of this book for free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

[Cynda · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 1/2 Stars

Military history is not much my thing, but this was a group read for GR Nonfiction Side Reads. Also I wanted to read as part of my stack of American Revolution/North American to US History study in honor of US Independence Day.

At first I was unsure about committing to this book due to the amount of details and number of pages. Now I am glad I have read the book. I knew enough to feel adequately conversant about some aspects of the American Revolution and fully able to Follow any discussi9n or read any book about. Yet--once again--I took the opportunity to learn more about a topic I am familiar with and am glad I took the time to learn.

[Travis Stroup · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is so good that it is shocking. There are so many accounts, letters, and other documentation that are used to tell the story of The War for Independence. I really like how he also referred to it as The First Civil War a couple times. Extremely good story telling that highlights both sides and their emotions about said events. He subtly weaves in eye witness accounts so well! Brings the history right to the reader in a remarkable way.

I always liked reading and learning about The Revolutionary War as a kid, and I found that I still like learning about it even now. This book is a must read if you are interested in American history.

[Ash Jogalekar · Rating 4 out of 5]

When the British army of regulars captured American troops during the Battle of New York, they contemptuously noted how they were surprised to see so many ordinary people among them – tanners, brewers, farmers, metal workers, carpenters and the like. That observation in one sense summed up the difference between the British and American causes: a ragtag group of ordinary citizens with little battle experience pitted against a professional, experienced and disciplined army belonging to a nation that then possessed the biggest empire since the Roman Empire. The latter were fighting for imperial power, the former for conducting an experiment in individual rights and freedom. The former improbably won.

Rick Atkinson shows us how in this densely-packed, rousing military history of the first two years of the Revolutionary War. The Americans kept on foiling the British through a combination of brilliant tactical retreats, dogged determination, improvisation and faith in providence. His is primarily a military history that covers the opening salvo in Lexington and Concord to the engagements in Princeton and Trenton and Washington's legendary crossing of the frozen Delaware. However, there is enough observational detail on the social and political aspects of the conflict and the sometimes larger than life personalities involved to make it a broader history. The account could be supplemented with other political histories such as ones by Gordon Wood, Bernard Bailyn and Joseph Ellis to provide a fuller view of the politics and the personalities.

Atkinson’s greatest strength is to bring an incredible wealth of detail to the narrative and pepper it with primary quotes from not just generals and soldiers but from ordinary men and women. His other big strength is logistical information. No detail seems to escape his eye; the number and tonnage of food and clothing provisions and shipping, sundry details of types of weapons, ships, beasts of burden and ammunition, the kinds of diseases riddling the camps and the medieval medicine used to treat them (some of them positively so - "oil of whelps" was a grotesque substance concocted from white wine, earthworms and the flesh of dogs boiled alive), ditties and plays that were being performed by the soldiers ("Clinton, Burgoyne, Howe, Bow, wow, wow"), the constantly-changing weather, the political machinations in Whitehall and the Continental Congress…the list goes on and on. Sometimes the overwhelming detail can be distracting – for instance do we need to know the exact number of blankets and weight of salt pork supplied during the eve of a particular battle? – but overall the dense statistics and detail have the effect of immersing the reader in the narrative.

The major battles – Lexington and Bunker Hill, Long Island and Manhattan, Quebec and Ticonderoga, Charleston and Norfolk, Princeton and Trenton – are dissected with fine detail and rousing descriptions of men, material, the thrust and parry at the front and the desperation, disappointments, retreats and triumphs that often marked the field of battle. The writing can occasionally be almost hallucinatory: "Revere swung into the saddle and took off at a canter across Charlestown Neck, hooves striking sparks, rider and steed merged into a single elegant creature, bound for glory". The accounts of the almost unbelievably desperate and excruciating winter fighting and retreat in Canada are probably the highlights of the military narratives. Lesser-known conflicts in Virginia and South Carolina in which the British were squarely routed also get ample space. Particularly interesting is the improbable and self-serving slave uprising drummed up by Lord Dunmore, Virginia's governor, and the far-reaching fears that it inspired in the Southern Colonies. Epic quotes that have become part of American history are seen in a more circumspect light; for instance, it’s not clear who said “Don’t fire until you see the whites of their eyes” during Bunker Hill, and instead of the famous “The British are coming” cry that is attributed to Paul Revere, it’s more likely that he said “The regulars are coming.” Also, the British army might have been experienced, but they too were constantly impacted by shortage of food and material, and this shortage was a major factor in many of their decisions, including the retreat from Boston. Brittania might have ruled the waves, but she wasn’t always properly nourished.

The one lesson that is constantly driven home is how events that seem providential and epic now were so uncertain and riddled with improvisation and desperation when they happened; in that sense hindsight is always convenient. Atkinson makes us aware of the sheer miserable conditions the soldiers and generals lived in; the threadbare clothing which provided scant protection against the cold, the horrific smallpox, dysentery and other diseases which swept entire battle companies off the face of the planet without warning and the problems constantly posed by loyalists and deserters to American patriots. There were many opportunities for men to turn on one another, and yet we also see both friends and enemies being surprisingly humane toward each other. In many ways, it is Atkinson’s ability to provide insights across a wide cross-section of society, to make the reader feel the pain and uncertainty faced by ordinary men and women, that contribute to the uniqueness of his writing.

Atkinson paints a sympathetic and sometimes heroic portrait of both British politicians and military leaders, but he also makes it clear how clueless, bumbling and misguided they were when it came to understanding the fundamental DNA of the colonies, their frontier spirit, their Enlightenment thinking and their very different perception of their relationship with Britain. A excellent complement to Atkinson’s book for understanding British political miscalculations leading up to the war would be Nick Bunker’s “An Empire on the Edge”. While primarily not a study of personality, Atkinson’s portraits of American commanders George Washington, Benedict Arnold, Henry Knox, Charles Lee, Israel Putnam and British commanders William and Richard Howe, George Clinton, Guy Carleton and others are crisp and vivid. Many of these commanders led their men and accomplished remarkable feats through cold and disease, in the wilderness and on the high seas; others like American John Sullivan in Canada and Briton George Clinton in Charleston could be remarkably naive and clueless in judging enemy strength and resolve. Atkinson also dispels some common beliefs; for instance, while the rank and file were indeed generally inexperienced, there were plenty of more senior officers including Washington who had gained good fighting experience in the ten-year-old French and Indian War. As a general, Washington’s genius was to know when to retreat, to make the enemy fight a battle of attrition, to inspire and scold when necessary, and somehow to keep this ragtag group fighting men and their logistical support together, emerging as a great leader in the process. He was also adept at carefully maneuvering the levers of Congress and to keep driving home the great need for ammunition, weapons and ordinary provision through a mixture of cajoling and appeals to men’s better angels.

For anyone wanting a detailed and definitive military history of the Revolutionary War, Atkinson’s book is highly recommended. It gives an excellent account of the military details of the “glorious cause” and it paints a convincing account of the sheer improbability and capriciousness of its success.

[Ozymandias · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a very good general overview of the American Revolution told from a military perspective. Or rather, it’s the first part of a trilogy on the Revolution and covers from the early days in Boston (1774/5) to the battles of Trenton and Princeton (1776/7). The highlight of the book is the author’s military understanding and ability to express it in words. There is little that is superfluous here, although the author does display a skill at integrating interesting tangents in ways that enhancing rather than distracting from the account. The prose is excellent and keeps the reader engaged, and the chapter titles are well chosen, being mainly taken from the statements of contemporaries, such as Washington’s “the retrograde motion of things” after the defeat at Fort Washington or “a sentimental manner of making war” after Germain’s complaint about those advocating peaceful solutions after the first blows have been struck. Such titles do much to capture the reader’s interest. As befitting a more popular history, the book is heavy on anecdotes and first-hand accounts and rather lighter on analysis.

One thing that I really appreciate about this book is that it doesn’t just focus on the famous elements of the war, it tries to provide as wide a view as possible. It begins, for example, not in the colonies but in England, where George III is having a celebration in Portsmouth. In fact, one of the book’s greatest strengths is its depiction of the English viewpoint, which is something that has been understandably forgotten in other accounts. And this focus on the forgotten elements of the war extends through the rest of the book as well. We get the expected accounts of Lexington and Concord (again, told largely from the British POV in a somewhat terrifying account of a march into the wild frontier of some backwards land), Bunker Hill, and New York, before ending with the battles of Trenton and Princeton. But we also get an account of the raising of armies in England and Ireland as well as TWO detailed chapters on the war in Canada. I’ve read a lot of books on the Revolution but I’ve never heard the siege of Quebec described in such detail. While it’s honestly not as exciting as the big name battles (and it sure undermines the gung-ho narrative of plucky freedom-fighters warring against tyranny) I appreciate the fact that we get a well-rounded look at the whole war.

There are a few issues that I have. The chief one is that it’s prone to misusing quotes, or perhaps simply using the wrong ones. I enjoyed reading the contemporary excerpts. It’s always interesting to hear what participants thought of things. But he also feels the need to quote any turn of phrase that he finds particularly pithy. You can’t go two pages without seeing a sentence containing something like “ ‘the something of something’ as Historian put it.” I found it very grating. Consultation of a wide range of secondary sources is praiseworthy for a historian, but reproducing their every statement seems less like consultation and more like copying the selected highlights.

In any event, the book is an excellent introduction to the wars of the American Revolution and manages to capture the feel of the period well. As a broad overview of the war it does its job superbly. Naturally, it has its limitations and has little time for broader social or cultural trends, nor do we get much of a feel for events outside the warzone except through the narrow lens of the king and prime minister. But as an account of the general course of the warfare it’s hard to beat. I look forward to the subsequent volumes.

[Christopher · Rating 5 out of 5]

The United States of America was first forged in the fires of the American Revolution. The War for Independence is where the American experiment in self-government truly begins. But, aside from the key moments in the first years of the Revolution, few Americans know how the war was fought and won. There have been some books that have focused on a particular battle or person during the Revolution, but too few authors have attempted to take a more comprehensive look at the entire war. This book from the author of the Liberation Trilogy, which charted America fighting in the European Theater during World War II, rectifies that with an incredibly thorough look at the first two years of the American Revolution.

The first thing that should strike readers about this book is just how balanced it is. Rather than just focus the Americans, which is easy to do, Mr. Atkinson has done an incredible amount of research on the British side of the war, even accessing papers from King George III that had not been previously made public or even catalogued by the British government. This incredible amount of research gives a sympathetic light to both the Americans and the British and shows that, while British had far greater resources at hand than the Americans, the war effort on the British end wasn't smooth sailing either. It also gives a certain amount of balance and credence to the book, especially when Mr. Atkinson talks about how it was mostly rabid American patriots, not the British, who destroyed Norfolk, VA, in 1776 (though the British did do some damage too).

The other great thing about this book is just how crystal clear Mr. Atkinson's descriptions of the battles are. Through the use of maps and amazing descriptive details, Mr. Atkinson shows just how bloody and brutal the fighting could get. His descriptions of the Battles of Bunker Hill and Princeton were particular high points. Admittedly, some of the descriptions could get a little muddled, but I think that was more my fault than Mr. Atkinson's.

What is missing from this book are some of the political details. There are very few discussions about the debates in Congress or Parliament, with only some focus given to key political leaders, like Ben Franklin, John Adams, Lord North, Lord Germain, and, of course, King George III. Indeed, there is zero talk about the debates over the Declaration of Independence. It just shows up in Washington's camp in New York one day and is read to the troops soon afterwards. This is, actually, all for the best as Mr. Atkinson's focus on the military aspects of the war, not the minutiae of revolutionary politics. Besides, there plenty of other books that talk about the politics, so Mr. Atkinson is wise to focus on the fighting instead. He does give attention to the diplomatic side though as an entire chapter is devoted to Ben Franklin's arrival in France in late 1776. It only makes up one small chapter in an otherwise large book, but I would not be surprised in Mr. Atkinson is previewing some themes in his future volumes.

Overall, this is the book on the War for Independence that I and, I assume, a lot of other military history buffs have been waiting for. It's going to be a long, hard wait for volume two of this new series and I, for one, will be waiting in eager anticipation for it.

[Ned Frederick · Rating 3 out of 5]

This history of the Revolutionary War often wore me down with its obsession with trivial details, but just as often it inspired me. I suppose serious students of history would be in hog heaven learning that precisely 368 horses were commandeered during the occupation of Boston. Or, how about this list of abandoned items discovered after the evacuation of Boston: 1,107 blankets, 236 stoves, 582 iron pots, and a thousand buckets, as well as 350 tons of hay, 79 horses, and 27 wagons? Frankly, a lot of this logistics porn comes across as filler. I’m no historian, I confess, but much of this heafty tome (800 pages!) seemed to revel in minutiae of the boring kind which unfortunately disrupted the narrative flow in a frustrating way. To this reviewer’s mind, a nicely organized appendix would have been a much better place to tuck away all those nerdy nuggets of knowledge, leaving a nicely paced story for the rest of us, who are just interested in what happened and maybe why. Now that I’ve vented about the overabundance of tedium, I hasten to point out that The British are Coming is not all boring. Far from it. We are often treated to Atkinson's engagingly dramatic narrative style with frequent zoomed-in unit level detail including battle scenes, so graphically detailed as to suggest abattoir rather than armed conflict. Big picture, God’s-eye-view perspectives are also used with great effect, including fleshed-out, state-of-mind imaginings of key figures, like Washington, Adams, Franklin, and so on. Perhaps most engaging was the rich detailing of the human landscape and mindscape during the long periods between major battles. At times it seemed as if winning was more about who could make and secure the most stuff and how many soldiers and sailors could endure various epidemics like dysentery, typhus and smallpox, than how good either side's generals were at strategy and tactics, or who had the bravest or even most war fighters. Well done, by and large, but I would have preferred an abridged version. More Readers Digest than Cliff Notes, mind you, but decidedly leaner on minute details.
The final three chapters rescued this read for me as the narrated events depicted rescued the war. They contained a stirring account of the events surrounding and including the Delaware crossings that turned the tide for the desperate Continental Army in December of ‘76.

[Chris Farrell · Rating 5 out of 5]

For those who are fans of Rick Atkinson’s tremendous Liberation Trilogy covering the US involvement in WWII, this may be slightly disappointing. In my opinion it’s not quite as good - the prose style isn’t super-tight, and I’ve become a bit disenchanted with the “historical present” voice that modern historians use to make history feel more immediate (did he use it in the Liberation Trilogy? I don’t remember it being as prominent).

One of the things that was great about the Liberation Trilogy was that it really leaned in to de-mythologizing WWII, particularly the US command structure which was often thoroughly mediocre. Patton in particular is a commander who, while competent, has a mythology far out of whack with his actual abilities and accomplishments. If there is any period of US history that could stand to be de-mythologized, the American Revolution is certainly it, and I was looking forward to something quite skeptical. While Atkinson is certainly dutiful and fairly rigorous, even he can’t *quite* escape the halo of myth that surrounds this.

I think what amateur historians will appreciate here is the inclusion of many British sources, from soldier’s letters home to commanders’ letters and diaries and other primary documentation. At least here in the US, the British point of view is usually not well-represented. The on-the-ground perspective that many individuals had of this being a civil war rather than an revolution helps frame the conflict.

Obviously I’m rating the book 5 stars - I did really enjoy it. The Liberation Trilogy was just so good that I had hoped for more, but this is still an excellent history of the American Revolution that provides context and perspective and is mostly dispassionate. I look forward to the next book in this trilogy.