Virginia Historical Society Podcast

On October 23, 2019, Rick Atkinson delivered the J. Harvie Wilkinson, Jr. Lecture, “The British Are Coming: The War for America, Lexington to Princeton, 1775­–1777.” 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 took 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 became a brilliant battle captain; Benjamin Franklin, the self-made man who proved to be the wiliest of diplomats; George Washington, the commander in chief who learned the difficult art of leadership when the war seems all but lost. 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 ou