The History Book Club discussion

This is the Introduction thread for The British are Coming: The War for America by Rick Atkinson.

by Rick Atkinson

Hallelujah and Amen twice ... I can’t wait to get started on this book!

Regards,
Andrea

Very soon Andrea, very soon

I am in! I just bought the book on Amazon for $3.99. That is the kindle edition of the book,

Yay! I’ve been eyeing this book for awhile. Happy to have a push to read it. Great choice!

I am glad that both of you are in on this read. I am excited myself since it is the beginning of another trilogy by Rick Atkinson.

by Rick Atkinson

Rick Atkinson

Michael wrote: "I am in! I just bought the book on Amazon for $3.99. That is the kindle edition of the book,"

It is also $3.99 on Apple iBooks right now!

That is a great price for all folks who would like to participate. I am certain that folks may be also be able to get it as a download from their public library if their library is closed. Of course the book is also available on line as Douglass pointed out

Update - I kid you not (lol)
There was an add that popped up on the goodreads page which actually pointed you to the special deals (how personalized is that lol)? And you are right Douglass - it appears to be on special today - not sure of the duration of the offer but there is also a special price for also adding the audible version to your list. I have the kindle version. I love hardcovers but hard to lug around; but I am a lover of paper overall so old habits are hard to break. But here I am! Great timely offer - it is uncanny.

I have just bought the hardback version of this from Amazon for £14.94. It looks fascinating. I'm hoping to read it later this year but as it's a big boy at over 800 pages and I'm a 50-a-day man (pages, that is) AND the fact that I'm a little bit behind in my reading challenge (and with all the time in the world at the minute, right?) I may have to leave it a bit longer.

Bentley, Thank you so much for setting up this thread. It really motivates me to get reading!
Regards, Andrea

I'm in!

Chris terrific - glad you are in.

by Rick Atkinson

We go at a very leisurely pace and we set up a syllabus and weekly threads so no worries. You can add your posts any time that you want to the appropriate thread even if you get behind for any reason whatsoever. We have all been and are in the same boat.

See above as to how to add a citation. Glad to have you here.

Andrea - you are most welcome - we kick off on May 10th.

Robyn, glad to have you with us.

We kick off on May 10th.

Everyone - a syllabus will be posted and just stay with the group and if you get behind - no worries - the threads do not close once they are open. If you go ahead - no worries but to be careful about spoilers - you would post on one of the spoiler threads like a bibliography, glossary thread or the book as a whole thread.

The weekly threads for a group of pages are non spoiler.

This is the Week One Reading Assignment:
KICKOFF IS MAY 10TH

Week One: -(May 10th - May 17th) (pages vii - through page 54)

TITLE PAGE ...vii

COPYRIGHT NOTICE ...

DEDICATION ...ix

EPIGRAPH ...v

LIST OF MAPS ...xv

MAP LEGEND ...xvi

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS ...xvii

PROLOGUE, England, June 1773–March 1775 - page 1

1. Inspecting the Fleet - page 1
2. Avenging the Tea - page 11
3. Preparing for War - page 23

Part One

1. GOD HIMSELF OUR CAPTAIN Boston, March 6–April 17, 1775  - page 35 (through end of chapter page 54)

Bentley wrote: "Chris terrific - glad you are in.

by [author:Rick Atkinson|3866..."

OK, Bentley. You've sold me. I'm in. Thank you!

Chris - we are delighted to have you join us. I was told by Douglass that there was a special deal with the price of the book on Amazon for May 3rd - not sure if it is still viable. I was told it was $3.99 which is a great deal and there was a deal for the audible version. I am not sure if you have the book already but it is available online for download.

I have my copy already.

Bentley wrote: "Chris - we are delighted to have you join us. I was told by Douglass that there was a special deal with the price of the book on Amazon for May 3rd - not sure if it is still viable. I was told it w..."

Thank you, Bentley. I am delighted to be here.

Yes, unfortunately I have bought the hardback/hardcover version already.

I did consider getting the Kindle version which would have been ideal for reading in bed but that was £9.99 and there was no option to buy the audible narration so it seemed pointless.

You wouldn't believe the amount of times I've woken up in the middle of the night thinking I'm having a heart attack only to realise that it is a 3 lb book laying on my chest that I fell asleep reading!

Chris you are making me laugh about your book attacks (lol). By the way, next year we should wish each other a happy birthday on line because it appears that we celebrate in the same week!

I too missed the bargain - but I saw both deals today after Douglass alerted us all. The kindle book was $3.99 (US dollars) and the accompanying audible was about 7 and change.

Bentley wrote: "Chris you are making me laugh about your book attacks (lol). By the way, next year we should wish each other a happy birthday on line because it appears that we celebrate in the same week!

I too ..."

What date are you, Bentley? I'm March 13th (born on Friday the 13th too!)

Always my luck to miss out! haha

15th!

Amazon.ca is selling the kindle addition for 3.99CDN if you are north of the border.

Hello Michael - so the sale is still viable today as well. Similar pricing to the US that Douglass saw today. That would be for folks from Canada all.

Thanks for letting the membership know.

I'm in and looking forward to listening to the audible edition!

Heather, terrific we are glad to have you with us. Right now we are setting up but the syllabus and weekly assignments are up and I am setting up the threads.

May 10th is the kickoff date and everyone is welcome.

I’ve never joined a book club before but have had this on my to-read list since it was released. Looking forward to the book and the group experience

Marc, welcome we are thrilled to have you with us and we hope you enjoy yourself - read a good book and get to know some of the group members at the same time.

Marc, this idea of a group read is terrific! You’ll enjoy it — I know that I do.
Regards,
Andrea

I picked this up the last day my library was open in Chattanooga, and they have allowed me to keep until reopened. If that happens I can use their app to electronically or audio. Looking forward to the discussion.

Gavin, terrific - glad to have you with us.

George III inherited his throne in 1760 at age twenty-two, on the eve of Britain’s victory in the Seven Years’ War, which created the greatest empire the world had known since ancient Rome. As the American rebellion gained strength in the 1770s, he feared that loss of the colonies would lead to Britain’s fatal decline. “Blows,” he declared, “must decide.”

Source: Johan Joseph Zoffany, George III, oil on canvas, 1771. (Royal Collection Trust / © Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II 2018)

Spotlighted Book - The British are Coming: The War for America, Lexington to Princeton

by Rick Atkinson

Synopsis:

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.

Michael wrote: "I am in! I just bought the book on Amazon for $3.99. That is the kindle edition of the book,"

I downloaded the kindle version from my library before I saw your post. I just went to Amazon thinking I would buy it at that price, but the price is no longer $3.99 (up to $9.99)

It was good while it lasted but it is a Pulitzer Prize Winner and a stellar purchase - that special price was timely I have to say for us. Well done for however that happened!

Glad you have your copy Glynn.

The king’s four-day review of the British fleet at Portsmouth in June 1773 was the occasion for a grand celebration of national power. Here the royal barge, in the center foreground, passes the stern of the warship Royal Oak amid a thunderous salute.

Source: John Clevely, George III Reviewing the Fleet at Spithead, 22 June 1773, watercolor, 1773. (© National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London)

Glynn wrote: "Michael wrote: "I am in! I just bought the book on Amazon for $3.99. That is the kindle edition of the book,"

I downloaded the kindle version from my library before I saw your post. I just went to..."

That stinks. Must of been a daily special or something.

I agree Michael - it must have been a short term special.

A childhood friend of the king, Lord Frederick North became his prime minister in 1770 and would oversee the war against America despite misgivings about the cause. “Upon military matters I speak ignorantly,” he once confessed, “and therefore without effect.”

Source: John Russell, Frederick North, 2nd Earl of Guilford, oil on canvas, c. 1765-68. (Privatecollection/Bridgeman Images)

Source: Queen Charlotte (1744–1818) Johann Zoffany (1733–1810) (attributed to) The Holburne Museum

REVIEWS OF THE BRITISH ARE COMING

“To say that Atkinson can tell a story is like saying Sinatra can sing…. Historians of the American Revolution take note. Atkinson is coming. He brings with him a Tolstoyan view of war; that is, he presumes war can be understood only by recovering the experience of ordinary men and women caught in the crucible of orchestrated violence beyond their control or comprehension…. It is as if Ken Burns somehow gained access to a time machine, traveled back to the Revolutionary era, then captured historical scenes on film as they were happening…. The story he tells is designed to rescue the American Revolution from the sentimental stereotypes and bring it to life as an ugly, savage, often barbaric war…. A powerful new voice has been added to the dialogue about our origins as a people and a nation. It is difficult to imagine any reader putting this beguiling book down without a smile and a tear.” —JOSEPH J. ELLIS, THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW

“Mr. Atkinson’s book…is chock full of momentous events and larger-than-life characters. Perfect material for a storyteller as masterly as Mr. Atkinson…. Mr. Atkinson commands great powers of description…. On center stage are the battlefields, [which] are documented in stellar prose and 24 exquisite maps.… The narrative is the stuff of novels, [but] Mr. Atkinson’s facts are drawn from a wealth of manuscript and printed sources. He quotes aptly and with acumen…. Mr. Atkinson weaves it all together seamlessly, bringing us with him. Pithy character sketches—reminiscent of 18th-century historians David Hume and Edward Gibbon, both of whom Mr. Atkinson cites—bring the dead to life.” —THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

“[Atkinson has a] felicity for turning history into literature…. One lesson of The British Are Coming is the history-shaping power of individuals exercising their agency together: the volition of those who shouldered muskets in opposition to an empire…. The more that Americans are reminded by Atkinson and other supreme practitioners of the historians’ craft that their nation was not made by flimsy people, the less likely it is to be flimsy.” —GEORGE F. WILL, THE WASHINGTON POST

“Atkinson…wastes no time reminding us of his considerable narrative talents…. His knowledge of military affairs shines in his reading of the sources…. For sheer dramatic intensity, swinging from the American catastrophes at Quebec and Fort Washington to the resounding and surprising successes at Trenton and Princeton, all told in a way equally deeply informed about British planning and responses, there are few better places to turn.” —THE WASHINGTON POST

“An epic tale, epically told. Atkinson excels at deftly summarizing personalities…. He moves effortlessly from the plans of commanders to the campfires of troops. The extraordinary scholarship involved—his meticulous endnotes cover 133 pages—is testament to a historian at the very top of his game…. The writing [is] incisive, humane, humorous, and often scintillating…. Anyone reading The British Are Coming will finish it looking forward impatiently to the next two. The trilogy looks fair to become the standard account of the war that brought the American Republic into being.” —ANDREW ROBERTS, CLAREMONT REVIEW OF BOOKS

“One of the best books written on the American War for Independence…. The reader finishes this volume uncertain of how either side can win this war, but very much wanting Atkinson to continue its telling."—ROBERT J. ALLISON, THE JOURNAL OF MILITARY HISTORY

“[Atkinson’s] account promises to be as detailed a military history of the war as we will see in our lifetimes upon its completion…. Atkinson makes good use of information from letters and journals to give his reader a sense of what it would have been like to walk in the shoes of both the war’s illustrious and lesser known participants…. Atkinson’s accounts of battles are among the most lucid I’ve read…. Readers who enjoy richly detailed military history will be greatly anticipating his second volume.” —JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION

“Atkinson takes his time, but there’s delight in all that detail…. Atkinson is a superb researcher, but more importantly a sublime writer. On occasion I reread sentences simply to feast on their elegance…. This is volume one of a planned trilogy. Atkinson will be a superb guide through the terrible years of killing ahead.” —THE TIMES (LONDON)

“The British Are Coming [is] a sweeping narrative which captures the spirit and the savagery of the times. Based on exhaustive research on both sides of the Atlantic, Atkinson displays a mastery of the English language as well as military tactics which puts him in a class of his own as a writer.” —LIONEL BARBER, EDITOR, FINANCIAL TIMES

“Rick Atkinson is emerging as America’s most talented military historian…. The British Are Coming is history written in a grand style and manner. It leaves one anxiously awaiting the next two volumes.”
—NEW YORK JOURNAL OF BOOKS

“This first installment in Pulitzer-winning historian Atkinson’s new trilogy is a sweeping yet gritty American Revolutionary epic. With granular detail and refreshingly unfamiliar characterizations—an uncertain George Washington, a thoughtful King George III, a valiant Benedict Arnold—he makes an oft-told national origin story new again.” —PUBLISHERS WEEKLY (ONE OF THE 10 BEST BOOKS OF 2019)

“This balanced, elegantly written, and massively researched volume is the first in a projected trilogy about the Revolutionary War…. Combining apt quotation (largely from correspondence) with flowing and precise original language, Atkinson describes military encounters that, though often unbearably grim, are evoked in vivid and image-laden terms…. Aided by fine and numerous maps, this is superb military and diplomatic history and represents storytelling on a grand scale.” —BOOKLIST (STARRED REVIEW)

“Atkinson (The Guns at Last Light, etc.) is a longtime master of the set piece: soldiers move into place, usually not quite understanding why, and are put into motion against each other to bloody result…. A sturdy, swift-moving contribution to the popular literature of the American Revolution.” —KIRKUS (STARRED REVIEW)

“This book is, in a word, fantastic. It offers all the qualities that we have come to expect from the author: deep and wide research, vivid detail, a blend of voices from common soldiers to commanders, blazing characterizations of the leading personalities within the conflict and a narrative that flows like a good novel…. The British Are Coming is a superb ode to the grit and everyday heroism that eventually won the war.” —BOOKPAGE (STARRED REVIEW)

ABOUT RICK ATKINSON



Pulitzer-Prize Winning Author & Historian

Rick Atkinson is author of The British Are Coming: The War for America, Lexington to Princeton, 1775-1777, the first volume of his intended Revolution Trilogy, a history of the American rebellion through 1783.

He is also author of the Liberation Trilogy, a narrative history of the liberation of Europe in World War II. The first volume, An Army at Dawn: The War in North Africa, 1942-1943, received the Pulitzer Prize and was acclaimed by the Wall Street Journal as “the best World War II battle narrative since Cornelius Ryan’s classics, The Longest Day and A Bridge Too Far.” The second volume, The Day of Battle: The War in Sicily and Italy, 1943-1944, drew praise from the New York Times as “a triumph of narrative history, elegantly written…and rooted in the sight and sounds of battle.” The final volume of the Liberation Trilogy, The Guns at Last Light: The War in Western Europe, 1944-1945, published in May 2013, ranked #1 on the New York Times bestseller list. The Wall Street Journal called it “a magnificent book,” and the New York Times Book Review described it as “a tapestry of fabulous richness and complexity…The Liberation Trilogy is a monumental achievement.”

Atkinson is also the best-selling author of The Long Gray Line, a narrative saga about the West Point class of 1966, and Crusade, a narrative history of the Persian Gulf War. He also wrote In the Company of Soldiers, an account of his time with General David H. Petraeus and the 101st Airborne Division during the invasion of Iraq in 2003; the New York Times Book Review called the book “the most intimate, vivid, and well-informed account yet published” about that war, and Newsweek cited it as one of the ten best books of 2004. He is the lead essayist in Where Valor Rests: Arlington National Cemetery, published by National Geographic in 2007.

Atkinson’s awards include the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for history; the 1982 Pulitzer Prize for national reporting; and the 1999 Pulitzer Prize for public service, awarded to the Washington Post for investigative articles directed and edited by Atkinson on shootings by District of Columbia police officers. He is winner of the 1989 George Polk Award for national reporting, the 2003 Society for Military History Distinguished Book Award, the 2007 Gerald R. Ford Award for Distinguished Reporting on National Defense, the 2010 Pritzker Military Library Literature Award for Lifetime Achievement in Military Writing, the 2013 New York Military Affairs Symposium award for lifetime achievement, and the 2014 Samuel Eliot Morison Prize for lifetime achievement from the Society for Military History. In December 2015 he received the Peggy V. Helmerich Distinguished Author Award, previously given to Saul Bellow, Toni Morrison, and David McCullough. Atkinson has served as the Gen. Omar N. Bradley Chair of Strategic Leadership at the U.S. Army War College, where he remains an adjunct faculty member. He is a Presidential Counselor at the National World War II Museum in New Orleans, a member of the Society of American Historians, and an inductee in the Academy of Achievement, for which he also serves as a board member. He serves on the governing commission of the National Portrait Gallery.

Atkinson worked as a reporter, foreign correspondent, and senior editor for two decades at the Washington Post. His last assignments were covering the 101st Airborne during the invasion of Iraq in 2003, and writing about roadside bombs in Iraq and Afghanistan in 2007. Previously he served as the assistant managing editor for investigations. Atkinson’s journalism career began at the Pittsburg (Kansas) Morning Sun in 1976; in 1977, he moved to the Kansas City Times, before going to the Washington Post in 1983. Among other assignments, he served as the Post’s Berlin bureau chief, covering not only Germany and NATO, but also spending considerable time in Somalia and Bosnia.

Born in Munich, Germany, Atkinson is the son of a U.S. Army officer and grew up on military posts. He holds a bachelor of arts degree from East Carolina University and a master of arts degree in English literature from the University of Chicago. He and his wife, Dr. Jane Chestnut Atkinson of Lawrence, Kansas, a researcher and clinician at the National Institutes of Health, live in the District of Columbia. They have two grown children, Rush, a criminal trial attorney for the Justice Department, and Sarah, a physician and colorectal surgery fellow at the University of Toronto.

by Rick Atkinson