Rick Atkinson Wins the Thirteenth Annual Gilder Lehrman Military History Prize

Award Ceremony to be held on December 1 in New York City

NEW YORK, NY, UNITED STATES, October 28, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ — The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History announced today that Pulitzer Prize–winning historian Rick Atkinson has been awarded the thirteenth annual Gilder Lehrman Military History Prize for The Fate of the Day: The War for America, Fort Ticonderoga to Charleston, 1777–1780 (Crown Publishing Group, 2025). The $50,000 prize is bestowed in recognition of the best eligible English-language book in the field of American military history, distinguished by its scholarship, its contribution to the literature, and its appeal to the broadest possible general reading public.

An event celebrating the winner and the two shortlisted authors will take place on Tuesday, December 1 at the Yale Club of New York City. Tickets to attend this free program are available online.

The second volume in Atkinson’s Revolution Trilogy, The Fate of the Day chronicles the pivotal middle years of the War for Independence as George Washington’s Continental Army and the fledgling republic walked the knife-edge between survival and collapse.

Finalists for this year’s prize were chosen by a three-member jury chaired by Michael S. Neiberg, Professor of History and International Security at the Hamilton School at the University of Florida. He was joined by Susannah J. Ural, Professor of History and Frank and Virginia Williams Chair for Abraham Lincoln and Civil War Studies at Mississippi State University, and John C. McManus, Curators’ Distinguished Professor of U.S. Military History at the Missouri University of Science and Technology.

In their recommendation to the prize board, the jury praised Atkinson’s narrative mastery and historical depth. Michael S. Neiberg made the following observations:

“Rick Atkinson has done it again. Here he delivers a monumental achievement in narrative history, stripping the American Revolution of myth and restoring contingency to its pivotal middle years. From the privations of Valley Forge to the crucible of the southern campaign, Atkinson uses his storytelling gifts to seamlessly integrate human drama with sweeping geopolitical events from Fort Ticonderoga to Westminster and Versailles. Anchored by his usual formidable exhaustive archival research, the book renders familiar icons as real, flesh-and-blood actors operating on a thin edge of success and defeat.”

The prize board made the final choice: James G. Basker, President and CEO of the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History; Robert C. Daum, Trustee of the American Battlefield Trust; Lieutenant General (Retired) Michelle D. Johnson; and S. Griffin Norquist III.

“Rick Atkinson’s The Fate of the Day is masterful narrative history, covering the middle years of the Revolutionary War in a vivid style worthy of a novel. It is a must read for any lover of American history!” said James Basker.

“I’m delighted and honored to receive this year’s Gilder Lehrman Military History Prize. The Gilder Lehrman Institute’s commitment to the study, writing, and teaching of history is a cause that every citizen should support. I’m deeply grateful for this generous recognition, and for the encouragement the prize gives to all military historians,” said Rick Atkinson.

About the Winner
Rick Atkinson is the bestselling author of the Liberation Trilogy—An Army at Dawn (winner of the Pulitzer Prize in History), The Day of Battle, and The Guns at Last Light—as well as The Long Gray Line and The British Are Coming, the first volume of his Revolution Trilogy and winner of the 2020 George Washington Prize. A former reporter, foreign correspondent, and senior editor at The Washington Post, his journalism has been recognized with two additional Pulitzer Prizes.

About the Finalists
The jury recognized two extraordinary shortlisted finalists chosen from 106 submissions: John A. Haymond’s Black Soldiers, White Laws: The Tragedy of the 24th Infantry in 1917 Houston (Atlantic Monthly Press) and Stephen R. Platt’s The Raider: The Untold Story of a Renegade Marine and the Birth of U.S. Special Forces in World War II (Knopf). Haymond’s study offers an incisive legal and military examination of the 1917 Houston riot and the courts-martial of the 24th Infantry that followed—the largest murder trial in American history—and the fundamental reckoning with race, due process, and military justice that it forced. Platt’s gripping biography draws on previously unexamined personal papers to follow Evans Carlson, the iconoclastic officer who learned guerrilla tactics in China, created the Marine Raiders, introduced “gung-ho” into the American lexicon, and confronted intense institutional paranoia at the onset of the Cold War.

About the Prize
The Gilder Lehrman Military History Prize was originated by Lewis E. Lehrman, co-founder of the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, author, and champion of studies in American political and military history.

The purpose of the Prize is to draw public attention to American military history not only as an important staple of education in the areas of international relations, diplomacy, and conflict studies, but also as a subject in which any educated citizen should be interested. The study of the steps to war, conduct of military campaigns, and diplomatic responses to war can play an essential role in the quest for a more peaceable future.

About the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History
The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History was founded in 1994 by Richard Gilder and Lewis E. Lehrman, visionaries and lifelong supporters of American history education. The Institute is the leading nonprofit and nonpartisan organization dedicated to K–12 history education while also serving the general public. Its mission is to promote the knowledge and understanding of American history through educational programs and resources, at the core of which is the Gilder Lehrman Collection, one of the great archives in American history, with more than 87,000 primary source documents. As a 501(c)(3) nonprofit public charity, the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History is supported through the generosity of individuals, corporations, and foundations. Learn more at gilderlehrman.org.

Christopher Giganti
Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History
+1 646-366-9666 ext. 137
press@gilderlehrman.org

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