After years of tension and protest, American militiamen and the ragged Continental Army took on Britain's formidable army and navy to win our independence. As he did for World War II in his Pulitzer Prize winning Liberation Trilogy, Rick Atkinson brings the Revolution to life through such figures as Henry Knox, a bookseller who masters artillery; Nathanael Greene, the bumpkin who becomes a brilliant battle captain; Benjamin Franklin, wiliest of diplomats; and George Washington, who learns the difficult art of leadership when the war seems all but lost. This first volume of America's foundational drama is also told from the British perspective, making the conflict between the redcoats and the rebels all the more immediate.