Rick Atkinson

Rick Atkinson

Rick Atkinson (Lawrency Rush Atkinson IV) was born on November 16th, 1952 and is currently 73 years old. Rick Atkinson was born in Munich, West Germany (now Germany). Atkinson attended East Carolina University where he received a Bachelor of Arts and the University of Chicago where he received a Master of Arts.

Rick Atkinson is best known as a journalist and historian from the United States who mainly focuses on military history.

Atkinson got started as a journalist in 1976 when he got a job with The Pittsburg Morning Sun. A year later, he moved to The Kansas City Times, where he spent half a dozen years as a national reporter, city desk reporter, and suburban police reporter beginning in the Midwest before he ended up in Washington.

By 1983, Atkinson was a general assignment reporter at The Washington Post. He would subsequently spend two years as deputy national editor working on diplomacy, defense, and other national security themes. He also worked in the investigative section of the publications and produced a series on the loan and savings scandal, public housing, and the B-2 bomber.

In 1991, Rick Atkinson was credited with writing most of the lead stories about the Gulf War on the Washington Post. He would then be posted to Berlin where he covered NATO and Germany as a bureau chief, even as he also spent considerable time in Bosnia and Somalia.

For his work, Rick has won the Pulitzer Prize for public service in 1999 and the Pulitzer Prize for national reporting in 1982. He has also won the International Reporting Livingston Award in 1983.

Rick Atkinson published An Army at Dawn in 2002. It tells the story of the American Army in Western Europe, Italy, and North Africa during the Second World War. It starts from Normandy and follows the army as they go against the Italians and Germans in Tunisia, Algeria, and Morocco to become a superb fighting force.

In 2007, Rick Atkinson published the work The Day of Battle, which tells the story of the battle for Sicily and Italy. He tells of the stiff German resistance and recounts the horrors of the battles in Sicily from the perspective of the individual soldiers. Full of blood, noise, bone, smoke, gore, cold, rain, and mud, they describe the horror and brutality of war.

In 2013 Rick Atkinson published The Guns at Last Night, a work that tells of the battle for Western Europe. It is all about the brutal fight for France starting on the beaches of Normandy, the liberation of Paris the horror of the Battle of the Bulge, and finally the push toward the German capital.

Rick Atkinson: Awards & Accolades

Rick Atkinson won the Helmerich Award, Peggy V. Helmerich Distinguished Author Award, in 2015.

Atkinson's book, The Fate of the Day: The War for America, Fort Ticonderoga to Charleston, 1777-1780 was nominated for the Goodreads Awards, Best History and Biography, in 2025.

Rick Atkinson: Lists & Other Mentions

• The Guns at Last Light: The War in Western Europe, 1944-1945 was a New York Times: #1 Nonfiction Best Seller in 2013.
• The Fate of the Day: The War for America, Fort Ticonderoga to Charleston, 1777-1780 has made several lists including:
  1. New York Times: #1 Nonfiction Best Seller in 2025.
  2. Washington Post: 10 Best Books of 2025 Selection in 2025.
  3. New York Times: 100 Notable Books of 2025 Selection in 2025.

Related Authors

Fans of Rick Atkinson also enjoy these authors:

1. Stephen King, author of The Dark Tower Series.
2. Michael Connelly, author of the Harry Bosch Series.
3. David Baldacci, author of the Amos Decker Series.
4. John Grisham, author of the Jake Brigance Series.
5. Erik Larson, author of: The Devil in the White City.

Rick Atkinson: F.A.Q