American Revolution and Seduction of War

For everything that separated the patriots, the loyalists and the British troops who fought in the American Revolution, they all had something in common. As Rick Atkinson tells us in “The British Are Coming,” they shared “an ancient, squalid secret: that war was an enchantment, a sorcery, a seductive spectacle like no other, beguiling the eye and gorging the senses.” Mr. Atkinson's book, the first in a planned Revolution Trilogy, shares this secret sentiment, too, offering an enchantingly seductive account of the war, from the Battle of Lexington (1775) to the Battle of Princeton (1777), and is chock full of momentous events and larger-than-life characters. Perfect material for a storyteller as masterly as Mr. Atkinson.