This is thinking in public, a program dedicated to intelligent conversation about front-line

theological and cultural issues with the people who are shaping them.

I'm Albert Moler, your host and president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville,

Kentucky.

Rick Atkinson has made one of the most fascinating professional transitions from being an award-winning historian.

Actually, he has won awards including the Pulitzer Prize as a journalist and then again the

Pulitzer Prize as an historian. He's written several books, most

famously his trilogy on World War II entitled The Liberation trilogy which addresses itself

to the unfolding story of the liberation of Europe

and now he has started a second major trilogy and the first volume in this is entitled

the British are coming covering the early years of the American Revolutionary War from 1775 to 1777.

Rick Atkinson is an author who takes you right into the story, develops character, tells a narrative, and points to some larger issues that will surprise you, and that's true of every volume that he's written.

I'm looking forward to this conversation with historian Rick Atkinson.

Rick Atkinson welcome to thinking in public.

Thanks Dr Miller, thanks for having me.

I really look forward to this conversation.

There's a sense in which every time I read a work,

I feel like I've had some kind of conversation

with the author, but it's different to actually

have this kind of conversation.

And when it comes to your work as an author, and especially with these two major trilogies,

one done and one in progress.

...