I'm currently a student at the Army War College and had the pleasure of reading The British Are Coming by Pulitzer Prize winner Rick Atkinson, then spending an evening in a small group session with him as part of the Commandant's Reading Program.
The book was fantastic and the first in a trilogy he is writing about the American Revolution. This volume spans 1775-1777, closing with the Continental Army's victory at Princeton. The narrative takes place in the colonies, the UK, and Canada, with "main characters" on all sides of the conflict. Battles are accounted for in gruesome detail at times - making 18th Century warfare come alive in ways I haven't appreciated in other readings. Atkinson's writing style is very accessible and exceptionally vivid, reading more like a novel than the legitimate, densely researched history it is. The detail he has drawn from thousands of letters, reports, and archives in the US and UK make the narrative as lively and rich as what we are accustomed to for events like World War II.
I asked him where he took creative license...and if/when he did, how did he balance it with historicity. He said he didn't take any creative license ("that wouldn't be history'") and those details were all sourced from someone's (or several people's) first-person accounts. When you read about the color of a sunrise or the squish under a general's boot walking over dead bodies, that level of research is impressive to reconcile. Nearly a third of the printed pages are his references, to give you an appreciation for the work he put in.
I'll point out that it is a predominantly military history of the Revolution. For example, you find out about the Declaration of Independence alongside Washington's army in New York. There is more political content in London and Paris than in Philidelphia and it works well to drive the narrative. It also added a more palpable sense of the ambiguity and challenges the Continental Army faced in resourcing, logistics, and strategic intent. Washington shows up as a greenhorn General and his mistakes are not sugar coated, but the providential aspects of his leadership aren't muted, either. You'll also see why Benedict Arnold was considered the best battle captain of the war on either side; something I was not so familiar with.
At our session, Atkinson said his motivation for writing this book was to help Americans have a complete appreciation for what our Founding Fathers did for us; to recognize what they were willing to die for in their aspiration for greatness as a people...without ignoring their character flaws.
I think he succeeded in fulfilling his goal in writing the book...I looked forward to every chance I got to sit down with the book and didn't want it to end. The second volume should be published in 2025, which can't come soon enough for me.
