East Tennessee Historical Society is sponsoring two events with author/ historian Rick Atkinson on Monday, June 23, 2025. He is touring to promote his new book, The Fate of the Day.

Atkinson will talk at 7 p.m. at First Presbyterian Church, preceded by a VIP reception at 5:30 p.m. at the East Tennessee History Center. Tickets are limited. Get ticket info here.

The Fate of the Day: The War for America, Fort Ticonderoga to Charleston, 1777-1780 is the second volume in Atkinson’s trilogy about the American Revolution. The first, The British Are Coming, was well received. The trilogy coincides with the 250th anniversary of the beginning of America’s war for independence.

About the book: The first 21 months of the American Revolution – which began at Lexington and ended at Princeton – was the story of a ragged group of militiamen and soldiers fighting to forge a new nation. By the winter of 1777, the exhausted Continental Army could claim only that it had barely escaped annihilation by the world’s most formidable fighting force. Two years into the war, King George III is as determined as ever to bring his rebellious colonies to heel. But the king’s task is now exponentially more complicated: fighting a determined enemy on the other side of the Atlantic has become ruinously expensive, and spies tell him that the French and Spanish are threatening to join forces with the Americans.

Here, Atkinson provides a riveting narrative covering the middle years of the Revolution. Stationed in Paris, Benjamin Franklin woos the French; in Pennsylvania, George Washington pleads with Congress to deliver the money, men and materiel he needs to continue the fight. In New York, General William Howe, the commander of the greatest army the British have ever sent overseas, plans a new campaign against the Americans – even as he is no longer certain that he can win this searing, bloody war.

The months and years that follow bring epic battles at Brandywine, Saratoga, Monmouth and Charleston, an infamous winter of misery in Valley Forge, and yet more appeals for sacrifice by every American committed to the struggle for freedom.

Atkinson’s brilliant account of the lethal conflict between the Americans and the British offers not only deeply researched and spectacularly dramatic history, but also a new perspective on the demands that a democracy makes on its citizens.

The East Tennessee History Center provided information and quotes for this report.