The British Are Coming

This book has a real depth of detail that I both appreciated and found distracting. Read this book (and the rest in the series) if you're looking for the minutiae of the Revolutionary War, but not if you're looking for a broad overview or interpretive account of the war.

Not having much of a background in US history beyond high school (I've mostly studied Middle Eastern and Asian histories at the college level), I felt like I got lost in a forest of factoids. But, if I were to reread this again in a few years after having read another 7-8 books on the subject, I think it would really help me in forming a good, clear picture in my mind of the first few years of the Revolutionary War.

Excellent 'warts and all' look at the first two years of the American Revolution from a largely military history perspective.

It spends most of its time describing the campaigns of the war. The successes and failures on both sides. At the same time, it doesn't shy from telling the whole story. From the hypocrisy of freedom fighters often being slave holders, to the jealous infighting of some American leaders.

The author doesn't over-analyze or over-editorialize, but the perceptive reader can use the evidence presented to see how the British utterly failed to win the 'hearts and minds' of the Americans, despite the large number of loyalists they should have been able to call on. Repeatedly taking actions that merely alienate their allies and encourage neutrals to enter the rebel camp.

The author's industry and interests have produced a remarkable history, just as it did in his Liberation Trilogy, in this first volume of a planned three-volume history of the Revolutionary war. I have read other histories of this war, but Atkinson's concerns including, for example, the rebel's difficulty in acquiring gun powder, the effect of smallpox, the absence of appropriate clothing and footwear, the changing affiliations of the citizenry, and the British difficulties of feeding thousands of troops with a supply chain across the Atlantic, all have resulted in an absorbing history that is unusually good at providing the reader with an immediate experience.