Audiobook Review: 'The British Are Coming: The War for America, Lexington to Princeton, 1775-1777'
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| © 2019 Rick Atkinson. ℗ 2019 Macmillan Audio |
On July 4, 2019, the United States of America will celebrate its 243rd year, making the nation the oldest surviving federation in the world. As usual, millions of Americans will celebrate Independence Day in different ways; many will go to the beach, others will have backyard barbecues, while still others will watch The Capitol Fourth concert live on their local PBS station. And because it's a long-established tradition, Americans from coast to coast will ooh and aah over fireworks displays either in person or by watching coverage of the festivities on television.
Some of the more historically minded folks might find inspiration from the "origins story" of America, either by watching documentaries such as A&E's 13-part series The Revolution or the shorter PBS counterpart Liberty! The American Revolution, or perhaps by reading such classics as Bruce Lancaster's The American Heritage Book of the Revolution or Howard Fast's 1961 novel April Morning.
One of the newest published works about America's war for independence from Britain is Rick Atkinson's The British Are Coming: The War for America, Lexington to Princeton, 1775-1777, Volume One of the Revolution Trilogy. Published by Henry Holt less than two months ago, Atkinson's best-selling book examines how and why British colonists broke the bonds that tied them to the British Empire and created a new nation based on the notions that "all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness."
Atkinson, who has chronicled America's involvement in Vietnam, Desert Storm, the Iraq War, and most recently, World War II, turned his attention to the Revolutionary War because, as he says in the foreword to the audiobook edition of The British Are Coming, he was fascinated by the origins of America and how the Revolution affected individuals on both sides of the Atlantic.
On May 14, the same day that Henry Holt's hardcover edition hit bookstores and the warehouses of Amazon and other online booksellers, Macmillan Audiobooks released the unabridged edition (21 CDs, 26 hours running time) of the audio edition in a box set. (The abridged version, which consists of 12 CDs and has a running time of 12 hours and 56 minutes, was released almost a month later.)
Produced by Robert Van Kolken and read by actor George Newbern (Father of the Bride, Scandal), the audiobook is a wonderful aural companion to Atkinson's bound-to-be-a-classic tale of the first 20 months and 15 days of the war for America between Great Britain and her 13 rebellious colonies on the Atlantic seaboard of North America.
From the publisher's website:
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.
My Take
I am not, by any stretch of the imagination, a devotee of the audiobook format. I bought half-a-dozen or so when publishers began releasing audio editions on cassette tapes back in the 1980s, but they were always the abridged versions. Unabridged versions of books that I liked - such as Tom Clancy's Red Storm Rising - were rare and expensive, and because I prefer complete versions rather than the condensed ones, I pretty much stopped buying audiobooks in the mid-1990s.
I still prefer reading books than listening to them, but every so often I'll look for unabridged editions on CD. Over the past decade or so I have bought box sets of The Hunt for Red October by Tom Clancy, The Longest Day by Cornelius Ryan, Star Wars - Episode I: The Phantom Menace by Terry Brooks, Star Wars - Episode III: Revenge of the Sith by Matthew Stover, William Shakespeare's Star Wars Trilogy by Ian Doescher, and 11/22/63 by Stephen King.
I have long wanted to get unabridged audiobooks of Atkinson's Liberation Trilogy (An Army at Dawn, The Day of Battle, and The Guns at Last Light), but either they are out of print or extremely expensive, so I decided to get The British Are Coming as soon as I could, preferably in an unabridged version.
Why?
Well, if you've never read any of Atkinson's books, you don't know that not only are they extremely well-researched and informative, but his writing style is both vivid and lyrical, almost poetic in a Homeric kind of way.
Take, for instance, this excerpt from The British Are Coming, in which Atkinson describes the contemporary reaction to the event we are celebrating on Thursday:
The fateful news traveled swiftly on the post road from Philadelphia, covering more than ninety miles and crossing five rivers in just a couple of days. Precise copies were then made of the thirteen-hundred-word broadside, titled “A Declaration,” that arrived at the Mortier mansion headquarters, and by Tuesday, July 9, General Washington was ready for every soldier in his command to hear what Congress had to say. In his orders that morning, after affirming thirty-nine lashes for two convicted deserters, he instructed the army to assemble at six p.m. on various parade grounds, from Governors Island to King’s Bridge. Each brigade major would then read—“with an audible voice”—the proclamation intended to transform a squalid family brawl into a cause as ambitious and righteous as any in human history.
That evening the commander in chief himself appeared on horseback at the Common with a suite of staff officers, not far from where Sergeant Hickey had tumbled from the scaffold two weeks earlier. Erect and somber, Washington rode into the middle of a hollow square formed by New York and Connecticut regiments while a chirpy throng of civilians ringed the greensward. A uniformed aide spurred his horse forward; the crowd hushed as he unfolded his script and began to read: “In Congress, July 4, 1776.” Even the most unlettered private recognized that something majestic was in the air.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.
Writing like this begs to be read aloud, and when someone with experience in the art of voice acting gets a gig to record the audiobook version of a good book, the result can be a bibliophile's kind of true magic. In the case of The British Are Coming, producer Robert Van Kolke struck gold when he hired George Newbern, an actor who has appeared in feature films (Father of the Bride), TV (Scandal), and voice acting for animated films (Justice League vs. The Fatal Five).
Newbern has a mellow, easy-to-listen voice, and he reads Atkinson's prose with just the right amount of gravitas without sounding either overly dramatic or drily didactic. This is an important detail; if you are going to spend over $50 on an audiobook and invest 26 hours of your free time listening to it, you need an actor whose voice is one you want to listen to and doesn't overemote. Luckily, Newbern is that sort of talent, and he does a wonderful job of reading this epic-length first volume of the Revolution Trilogy.
As the publisher's blurb points out, the audiobook edition includes an exclusive author's introduction recorded by Atkinson himself. It basically explains why, after covering World War II, the two Persian Gulf Wars, and Vietnam, he was drawn to write about the Revolution. The author's speaking voice is pleasant and retains a listener's attention easily; when I heard it I felt as though I was at one of those "meet the author" functions at a bookstore as I listened to the backstory of how Atkinson decided to embark on the long and difficult odyssey to write the Revolution Trilogy.
Although the unabridged version of the audiobook is more expensive than the hardcover edition (Macmillan Audiobooks' MSRP is $79.99. though I bought it for less at Amazon), it is a great addition to a history buff's collection. It's perfect for people who listen to audiobooks on long commutes or road trips, as well as for individuals who have impaired vision or just like the format better than print.
The unabridged version consists of 21 compact discs and comes in a package designed by Clair Sullivan and based on the hardcover edition's book jacket designed by Rick Pracher. The box is compact and doesn't take up a lot of room, and the discs themselves are ensconced in four multi-disc holders inside the outer packaging.
The only complaint I have about this box set is that, like many audiobook publishers, Macmillan chose a lightweight variety of paperboard that is not heavy (which saves the company on shipping costs) but rather flimsy. I've handled my set of The British Are Coming with great care, but it already looks like it's been around for five years or more, with visible tears in the lower corners. The disc holders (there are four) are made of sturdier material, but the outer box is fragile and requires careful handling.
Aside from that, kudos to Macmillan Audiobooks for bringing Atkinson's bound-to-be-a-classic tome to life in this wonderful audio edition. I strongly recommend it.
- Macmillan Audio
- On Sale: 05/14/2019
- ISBN: 9781250225559
- Audio Run Time: 26:3:0
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