Savannah, GA, October 2, 2025 – The Georgia Historical Society (GHS) will welcome three-time Pulitzer Prize–winning historian Rick Atkinson to Savannah on Thursday, October 9, 2025, for a special keynote presentation of the 2025–2026 Georgia History Festival and as part of GHS’s statewide commemoration of the US 250th anniversary.
The free public program will take place at Congregation Mickve Israel, coinciding with the anniversary of the Revolutionary Siege of Savannah. Beginning at 6:00 p.m., Atkinson will join Dr. Stan Deaton, the Dr. Elaine B. Andrews Distinguished Historian at GHS, for a lively discussion of Atkinson’s latest work, The Fate of the Day: The War for America, Fort Ticonderoga to Charleston, 1777–1780. Following the program, guests will have the opportunity to purchase books and meet the author during a signing.
“Rick Atkinson is one of America’s most distinguished and best historians, and how lucky for all of us that he has chosen to tell America’s origin story at this crucial moment in our history,” said Dr. Stan Deaton, Senior Historian at the Georgia Historical Society. “His authority as a military analyst and his dedication to the craft of narrative history is unmatched—as his three Pulitzers demonstrate. He is simply the best at what he does, and we are thrilled to have him join us.”
Atkinson’s new book, the second volume in his acclaimed Revolution Trilogy, traces the critical middle years of the American Revolution. From Franklin’s diplomacy in Paris and Washington’s efforts to sustain his army, to the battles of Brandywine, Saratoga, Monmouth, Savannah, and Charleston, Atkinson provides a sweeping account of the conflict. The book reveals both the course of the war and the sacrifices required in the fight for independence.
Atkinson is the bestselling author of The Long Gray Line, Crusade, In the Company of Soldiers, and the acclaimed Liberation Trilogy, of which the first volume, An Army at Dawn, received the Pulitzer Prize in History. His The British Are Coming, the opening volume of the Revolution Trilogy, was a multi-week New York Times bestseller and the recipient of multiple national book awards. In 2019, the Georgia Historical Society honored his outstanding contributions by inducting him as a Vincent J. Dooley Distinguished Teaching Fellow, a distinction that honors Vince Dooley’s lifelong commitment to history and higher education.
The 2025–2026 Georgia History Festival, GHS’s signature K-12 educational program reaching nearly 250,000 students statewide, will continue through the winter and spring with classroom resources and public events that bring history to life, including the Colonial Faire and Muster, Super Museum Sunday, the Georgia Day Expo, a panel discussion titled “A United States but a Divided America: How We Have Celebrated the Nation’s Birthday During Turbulent Times” with University of Virginia professors Dr. William Hitchock and Dr. Elizabeth Varon, and the Trustees Gala.
For additional details, please visit www.georgiahistoryfestival.org or please contact Keith Strigaro, Director of Public Relations and Communications, at 912.651.2125, ext. 153, or by email at kstrigaro@georgiahistory.com.
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ABOUT THE GEORGIA HISTORICAL SOCIETY
The Georgia Historical Society (GHS) is the premier independent statewide institution responsible for collecting, examining, and teaching Georgia and American history. GHS houses the oldest and most distinguished collection of materials related exclusively to Georgia history in the nation.
To learn more visit georgiahistory.com.