Rick Atkinson
Rick Atkinson: A Pulitzer Prize-Winning Historian
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Full Name and Common Aliases
Rick Atkinson is the full name of this renowned American historian and journalist.
Birth and Death Dates
Born on February 6, 1952, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Currently active in his profession.
Nationality and Profession(s)
Atkinson holds American nationality and is a historian, journalist, and author by profession.
Early Life and Background
Growing up in Pittsburgh, Atkinson developed an interest in history at a young age. He attended the University of Pittsburgh, where he earned his Bachelor's degree in 1974. Later, he received his Master's degree from the Johns Hopkins University in 1982. Atkinson began his career as a journalist, working for various newspapers and magazines before transitioning to historical writing.
Major Accomplishments
Atkinson's most notable work is the Liberation Trilogy, a three-volume history of World War II: An Army at Dawn (2003), The Day of Battle (2007), and The Guns at Last Light (2013). This trilogy earned him the Pulitzer Prize for History in 2003, 2007, and 2014. His other notable works include In the Company of Soldiers: A Private Inside the Trials of the Iraqi War (2004) and The Long Gray Line: The American Journey of the Harvard Class of '62 (1984).
Notable Works or Actions
Atkinson's writing focuses on historical events, particularly World War II and the Iraq War. His books offer in-depth analyses of battles, military strategies, and the human experiences during these conflicts. He has also worked as a columnist for The Washington Post and as a senior fellow at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History.
Impact and Legacy
Atkinson's work has significantly contributed to our understanding of World War II and its significance in modern history. His books have been widely praised by historians, critics, and readers alike for their meticulous research, engaging narrative style, and attention to detail. Through his writing, Atkinson has helped shape the public's perception of historical events, emphasizing the human cost and complexity of war.
Why They Are Widely Quoted or Remembered
Rick Atkinson is widely quoted and remembered due to his meticulous research, engaging narrative style, and comprehensive understanding of historical events. His work has been recognized with numerous awards, including three Pulitzer Prizes, solidifying his reputation as one of the leading historians of our time. As a result, his quotes and insights are frequently sought after by readers, researchers, and media outlets seeking to understand the complexities of history.
Atkinson's contributions to historical writing have left an indelible mark on our understanding of World War II and its impact on modern society. His work continues to inspire new generations of historians, writers, and readers, ensuring his legacy as one of the most respected voices in historical scholarship.
Quotes by Rick Atkinson
Like any army moving from war to peace, this Army was entering a period in which it would search high and low for its soul. Only the vanquished truly learn anything from the last war, according to an ancient maxim, and the issue now confronting America was whether the defeated nation and the nation’s vanquished Army would learn anything from Vietnam.
I suffer from the usual difficulty that besets the higher commander – things can be ordered and started, but actual execution at the front has to be turned over to someone else.
Gunners sloshed cans of water to cool their glowing barrels while others struggled from the rear with ninety-six-pound rounds on their shoulders.
His animating principle, as the official history explained, was “that in order to destroy anything it is necessary to destroy everything.” By the late fall of 1944, Harris claimed that forty-five of sixty listed German cities had been “virtually destroyed,” at a rate of more than two each month, with a dwindling number awaiting evisceration.
Churchill composed his own aphorism, much quoted: “There is only one thing worse than fighting with allies, and that is fighting without them.
It was the indispensable institution, led by the indispensable man, and the coupling of a national army with its commander marked the transformation of a rebellion into a revolution. “Confusion and discord reigned in every department,” Washington wrote in late July. “However we mend every day, and I flatter myself that in a little time we shall work up these raw materials into good stuff.
September 1, 1939, was the first day of a war that would last for 2,174 days, and it brought the first dead in a war that would claim an average of 27,600 lives every day, or 1,150 an hour, or 19 a minute, or one death every 3 seconds.
MARKET GARDEN proved “an epic cock-up,” as a British major averred, a poor plan with deficient intelligence, haphazard execution, and indifferent generalship.
Of all the king’s officers who would die in battle during the long war against the Americans, more than one out of every eight had perished in four hours on a June afternoon above Charlestown.