**One of AudioFile Magazine's Best Audiobooks of 2019** "The winning combination of George Newbern's engaging narration and Rick Atkinson's vivid new work of history--the first in a planned trilogy about the American Revolution--brings to life what could have been a dry account of Revolutionary battles." -- AudioFile Magazine This program includes a bonus introduction, read by the author, and exclusive to the audiobook. 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.
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“To say that Atkinson can tell a story is like saying Sinatra can sing…He presumes war can be understood only by recovering the experience of ordinary men and women…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…It is difficult to imagine any reader putting this beguiling book down without a smile and a tear.”
— New York Times Book Review
“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)“His knowledge of military affairs shines…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.”
— Washington Post“As detailed a military history of the war as we will see in our lifetimes…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.”
— Journal of the American RevolutionBe the first to write a review about this audiobook!
Rick Atkinson, a former staff writer and senior editor at the Washington Post, is the highly acclaimed author of several books of military history. An Army at Dawn won the Pulitzer Prize for History, and The Guns at Last Light was a #1 New York Times bestseller. Among his many accolades and awards are the George Polk Award, the Pritzker Military Library Literature Award, the Samuel Eliot Morison Prize, the Society for Military History Distinguished Book Award, the Axel Springer Prize, and the Henry Adams Prize, among others.
George Newbern is an Earphones Award–winning narrator and a television and film actor best known for his roles as Brian MacKenzie in Father of the Bride and Father of the Bride Part II, as well as Danny in Friends. As a voice actor, he is notable for his role as Superman on the Cartoon Newtork series Static Shock, Justice League, and Justice League Unlimited. He has guest starred on many television series, including Scandal, The Mentalist, Private Practice, CSI: Miami, and Numb3rs. He holds a BA in theater arts from Northwestern University.