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 bookis 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.
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
Atkinsonwastes 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
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
[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