Rick Atkinson is the bestselling author of the Liberation Trilogy--An Army at Dawn (winner of the Pulitzer Prize for history), The Day of Battle, and The Guns at Last Light--as well as The Long Gray Line and other books. His many additional awards include a Pulitzer Prize for journalism, the George Polk Award, and the Pritzker Military Library Literature Award. A former staff writer and senior editor at The Washington Post, he lives in Washington, D.C.
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER "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." --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." --Mark Spencer, 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
"The British Are Coming is an exquisite masterpiece of history by
one of the nation's foremost writers and historians. There is a
newness, eloquence, and immediacy in Atkinson's telling that
surpasses any previous Revolutionary War narrative; it conveys to
the reader a sense of discovering the American Revolution for the
very first time, in all of its sheer drama. This volume embraces
the lived experience of the war's early years with all of its
complexities, ironies, triumphs, and tragedies. . . . This volume
is, in short, a work to be reckoned with and one that will
powerfully inform broader conversations on the importance and
continued relevance of our national origins." --Citation, 2020
George Washington Book Prize "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) "Pulitzer
Prize-winner Atkinson (The Liberation Trilogy) replicates his
previous books' success in this captivatingly granular look at the
American Revolution from the increasing tension in the colonies in
1773 to the battles of Trenton and Princeton in 1777. Extensive
research . . . allows Atkinson to recreate the past like few other
popular historians . . . A superlative treatment of the period."
--Publishers Weekly (starred review) "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)
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