The British Are Coming: The War for America, Lexington to Princeton, 1775-1777

At the outset of The British Are Coming, Atkinson presents the American colonists as deeply embedded within the British imperial framework. They were loyal subjects of a distant king, not rebellious insurgents. Many had fought on behalf of the British Crown during the Seven Years’ War, and they maintained cultural, political, and economic ties to the empire. Their desire for representation, not separation, shaped the early stages of resistance. But when Parliament refused to accommodate their grievances—“no taxation without representation” foremost among them (26)—the relationship fractured. Atkinson suggests that the imperial bond, deeply felt and widely cherished, had frayed beyond repair. The transformation from colonist to American began not with a fully formed national identity, but with a reluctant severance from empire. It was “an improvised struggle between two peoples of a common heritage” (46). Through protest, rebellion, and eventually armed conflict, the colonists began to construct a collective identity in opposition to British rule, one that would soon assume a mythical character grounded in sacrifice, resistance, and emerging ideals of liberty.

At the center of this evolving mythos stands George Washington, whom Atkinson portrays not merely as a military commander, but as the symbolic embodiment of American identity. He would “personify the army he commanded” (157), for better and for worse.