Rick Atkinson is a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist and author. His latest book, "The Fate of the Day" is the second in a trilogy focusing on the Revolutionary War. He'll be speaking at the Filson Historical Society in the latest Gertrude Polk Brown Lecture Series Monday night. He spoke with LPM's Bill Burton about his book.
Bill Burton: The American Revolution is something that many people think they know fairly well, but much of the common perception of the Revolution isn't necessarily all that accurate. So how do you go about trying to correct those misperceptions?
Rick Atkinson: Well, I do it by trying to write the truth. I think you're right. I think there is a lot of misconception about the way the war was fought and about the founders. The founders tend to be either embalmed in reverence or pilloried for their manifest flaws. The truth is somewhere in between. I think they're much more interesting than the marble statues that we grew up revering as school kids.
BB: In writing a book like this, you don't simply focus on the names everybody knows, George Washington, Benedict Arnold. You also focus on some lesser known individuals. What does their inclusion add to the story?
RA: Well, the cast of characters in an eight year American Revolution is enormous. I spent a lot of time on the other side of the hill, as it were, trying to understand what the British thought they were doing in waging war for eight years against their own people across 3000 miles of open ocean in the age of sail. So George the Third, for example, is a large character in both books, and then I also in this book, because the war becomes not just a brush fire on the edge of the civilized world, but it becomes a World War. The French come into it, then the Spanish come into it, the Dutch are going to come into it. So I think that this expanded population of those, not just the boldface names, but those who are major players in the war, gives it depth and complexity.
BB: A book like this, a series like this that you're working on, takes a staggering amount of research. For the first book, you went all the way to Windsor Castle to do your research on King George. What was the research like for this book?
RA: It was even broader. I think, because the war is broader, I do spend a lot of time in England. I was at Windsor Castle for a whole month for volume one, and a lot of that also informs volume two. That's where the papers of George the Third are kept. The top of the round tower begun by William the Conqueror in the 11th century. I spent a lot of time at the British National Archive in Kew, just outside of London.
BB: Your work contains all the details that would draw in somebody who really wants to know a lot more about a very specific piece of history, but the way you write the book also appeals to those who approach history, you might say a bit more casually. How do you walk that fine line for appealing to those who want that finely detailed history, but also make it accessible for a broader audience?
RA: Yeah, well, my ambition is not to write for the Academy. It's to write for a broad audience as you say, Bill. I think that the ambition that I embrace is even though you've got a pretty good idea what happens in the American Revolution, I guarantee you you'll be on the edge of your seat at moments in this story, because it is so vivid, it's never really clear until very late in the war that the Americans are actually going to win.
BB: So the audience may be surprised by some of the details. Were you surprised by any of the tales you uncovered during the research?
RA: Oh, one of the joys of having the privilege of doing what I do is that you're surprised all the time. George Washington, proverbially, the man who could never tell a lie, sure can prevaricate on occasion, especially when he's writing to Congress to try to explain the latest battlefield defeat. So yes, I am surprised, because, again, it adds nuance and depth.
BB: That is Rick Atkinson. His latest book, it is the second of a trilogy focusing on the American Revolution. It's called "Fate of the Day." Rick, thank you so much for your time.
RA: Thank you very much, Bill. I look forward to being in Louisville.
This transcript was edited for clarity.
