Military Historian Rick Atkinson Wins $50,000 American Battlefield Trust Prize for History for The Fate of the Day, Second Volume in Masterful Revolutionary War Trilogy

(Washington, D.C.) — Military historian and Pulitzer Prize winner Rick Atkinson has captured the third-annual American Battlefield Trust Prize for History with the second volume of his American Revolution trilogy, The Fate of the Day: The War for America, Fort Ticonderoga to Charleston, 1777-1780. Out of a strong field of finalists, honorable mention was awarded to Richard Bell, author of The American Revolution and the Fate of the World, and A. Wilson Greene, author of A Campaign of Giants: The Battle for Petersburg Volume 2, From the Crater’s Aftermath to the Battle of Burgess Mill. 

“Through this award, we look to reward scholars who embrace the irreplaceable research perspective that comes from studying the hallowed grounds of our nation’s battlefields, and to galvanize readers to action through our preservation mechanisms, ensuring that the next generation of historians enjoys these same assets.”
- David Duncan, President of the American Battlefield Trust 

The Prize recognizes outstanding published works of military history or biography focused on the nation’s formative conflicts: the Revolutionary War, the War of 1812 and the Civil War. The organization, which celebrates its 40th anniversary next July, has protected more than 62,000 acres on 160 battlefields across 25 states. Still, many more historically sensitive landscapes remain threatened. The $50,000 annual award has been endowed by a generous donor, ensuring no funds are diverted from the Trust’s primary land preservation and education mission.

“I'm thrilled, and deeply honored, by this extraordinarily generous gesture,” said Atkinson. “I deeply admire what the American Battlefield Trust is doing for the country, and am proud to be affiliated with such a righteous cause.”

A journalist turned military historian, Atkinson’s eight books to date cover five different American Wars. As a reporter, he received a Pulitzer Prize in 1982 for a body of work focused on the West Point class of 1966, which grew to become his first history book, The Long Gray Line. He was part of The Washington Post team that received the 1999 Pulitzer Prize for public service reporting. An Army at Dawn: The War in North Africa, 1942–1943, the first volume of his acclaimed The Liberation Trilogy, about the European Theater of World War II, won the Pulitzer Prize for History in 2003.

In his Honorable Mention book The American Revolution and the Fate of the World, Richard Bell, a University of Maryland professor, examines the nation’s founding conflict through a global lens and how it rippled outward as far as Australia. Meanwhile A. Wilson Greene, a former National Park Service historian who was instrumental in the early years of the modern battlefield preservation movement, was honored for A Campaign of Giants, which takes a detailed look at the middle phases of the Civil War’s Petersburg Campaign.  

The three prizes will be awarded in a private ceremony during the Trust’s Grand Review donor weekend in October. All finalists are invited to speak at the Trust’s Battlefield BookFest event in Gettysburg, Pa., November 13-14; tickets go on sale August 3.

Other finalists for the 2026 American Battlefield Trust Prize for History, listed alphabetically, include: 

• Ken Burns and Geoffrey Ward, The American Revolution (Alfred A. Knopf)  
• John Ferling, Shots Heard Round the World (Bloomsbury) 
• Mark Edward Lender & James Kirby Martin, War Without Mercy: Liberty or Death in the American Revolution (Osprey)
• Damian Shiels, Green and Blue: Irish Americans in the Union Military (Louisiana State University Press)

For more information on the prize, including past honorees, please visit www.battlefields.org/bookprize. Share your impressions of the finalists on social media using the hashtag #BattlefieldBookPrize

The American Battlefield Trust is dedicated to preserving America’s hallowed battlegrounds and educating the public about what happened there and why it matters today. The nonprofit, nonpartisan organization has protected more than 62,000 acres associated with the Revolutionary War, War of 1812 and Civil War across 160 sites in 25 states. Learn more at www.battlefields.org.