Pulitzer Prize winning author Rick Atkinson spoke to a packed house Tuesday at First Presbyterian Church, an event sponsored by the East Tennessee Historical Society. His new book, “The British Are Coming,” was the focal point of a 90-minute presentation which included audience Q&A.
This guy is engaging in person, much like his books on American history. His Liberation Trilogy on World War II (starting with The Army at Dawn) was spellbinding and garnered him at least one of his three Pulitzers. That effort took 15 years to research and write. Unlike much of the dumb memorization of dates and flat prose we were fed in high school, Atkinson makes history come alive, weaving in oodles of detail without clouding the real stories about the people and underlying events.
Rick Atkinson
His new book, “The British Are Coming, the War for America, Lexington to Princeton,” 1775-1777, is part of a planned “The Revolution Trilogy” that will take us from pre-war years leading up to the drafting of the U.S. Constitution in 1787.
Atkinson does all his own research. This former newspaperman doesn’t just spout theories, he goes out to the actual sites and archives, and digs deep for facts and intriguing personal correspondence from the period. For example, he told us how, for a month, he climbed the 300 stairs in the tower of Windsor castle to examine the recently-released papers of King George III (some 350,000 pages). George was “no ninny.” He kept detailed records of his some 50-year reign that included the revolutionary war. This enabled Atkinson to focus some of the events from the British perspective.
Atkinson spoke to us about the enormous logistics of trying to supply a huge army hundreds of miles across stormy seas in a hostile environment. Moving tons of weapons, horses, sheep, uniforms, powder and even bread, plus each man’s daily five-ounce dram of rum was a major undertaking. Much was lost or captured at sea.
The war lasted 3,089 days. Atkinson said some 90,000 days have passed since then. We Americans need to ask what do we want to become now? Knowing where we came from may help us answer.
He said we are a “country born in bickering.” Ordinary men and women, with all their shortcomings, rose to the occasion and shaped a nation with ideals bigger than themselves. They created a system of governance that helps keep disagreeing partisans in line.
Rick Atkinson helps us to know the players, their strength and weaknesses, as well as the events which shaped them. The war historian closed with the solemn observation that “for a new country to be born, young men must die.”
If you love history, you gotta read Atkinson.
Postscript: A detailed bio can be found on Wikipedia. But the real man shines through his work.