As he did in his trilogy about the Allied triumph in Europe during World War II, Rick Atkinson brings extensive research, keen attention to detail, and narrative elegance to the telling of yet another
grand conflict—this time, the American Revolution. The British Are Coming: The War for America, Lexington to Princeton, 1775-1777 (Holt, $40) is the first of three volumes that Atkinson plans to write about the war for America, and it’s another magnifi cent history, vividly and commandingly narrated, weaving together the perspectives of many characters high and low along with meaningful assessments of the action. Although much has been written about the American Revolution, no one had done a start-to-finish battle history for some time, and the actual experience of the war hadn’t
been made real to readers for many years—until now.