The Fate of the Day: The War for America, Fort Ticonderoga to Charleston, 1777-1780

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • In the second volume of the landmark American Revolution trilogy by the bestselling author of The British Are Coming, George Washington’s army fights on the knife edge between victory and defeat.

Rick Atkinson is featured in the new Ken Burns documentary The American Revolution, premiering ahead of the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States.

“This is great history . . . compulsively readable . . . There is no better writer of narrative history than the Pulitzer Prize–winning Atkinson.”—The New York Times (Editors’ Choice)

ONE OF THE WASHINGTON POST’S TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR • A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: The New York Times Book Review, NPR, Kirkus Reviews

The first twenty-one months of the American Revolution—which began at Lexington and ended at Princeton—was the story of a ragged group of militiamen and soldiers fighting to forge a new nation. By the winter of 1777, the exhausted Continental Army could claim only that it had barely escaped annihilation by the world’s most formidable fighting force.

Two years into the war, George III is as determined as ever to bring his rebellious colonies to heel. But the king’s task is now far more complicated: fighting a determined enemy on the other side of the Atlantic has become ruinously expensive, and spies tell him that the French and Spanish are threatening to join forces with the Americans.

Prize-winning historian Rick Atkinson provides a riveting narrative covering the middle years of the Revolution. Stationed in Paris, Benjamin Franklin woos the French; in Pennsylvania, George Washington pleads with Congress to deliver the money, men, and materiel he needs to continue the fight. In New York, General William Howe, the commander of the greatest army the British have ever sent overseas, plans a new campaign against the Americans—even as he is no longer certain that he can win this searing, bloody war. The months and years that follow bring epic battles at Brandywine, Saratoga, Monmouth, and Charleston, a winter of misery at Valley Forge, and yet more appeals for sacrifice by every American committed to the struggle for freedom.

Timed to coincide with the 250th anniversary of the beginning of the Revolution, Atkinson’s brilliant account of the lethal conflict between the Americans and the British offers not only deeply researched and spectacularly dramatic history, but also a new perspective on the demands that a democracy makes on its citizens.

Rick Atkinson is the bestselling author of eight works of narrative military history, including The Fate of the Day, The Guns at Last Light, The Day of Battle, An Army at Dawn, The Long Gray Line, In the Company of Soldiers, and Crusade. He also was the lead essayist in Where Valor Rests: Arlington National Cemetery, published by National Geographic. He was a reporter, foreign correspondent, war correspondent, and senior editor at The Washington Post for more than twenty years. His many awards include Pulitzer Prizes for history and journalism, the George Polk Award, the George Washington Prize, and the Pritzker Military Library Literature Award for Lifetime Achievement in Military Writing. He lives in Washington, D.C.

“Rick Atkinson takes his place among the greatest of all historians. This superb second volume in his Revolution Trilogy is that rare narrative that keeps you on the edge of your seat. Familiar characters become dimensional and complicated, new ones burst to life vividly, and the battles and struggles that created our country now have clarity and meaning.”—Ken Burns

“This is great history. . . . We witness Washington mature as a commander; we come to understand why Arnold sells his allegiance; and we recognize King George’s quandary as his generals repeatedly fail to draw this ruinously expensive conflict to an end . . . . There is no better writer of narrative history than the Pulitzer Prize-winning Atkinson.”—The New York Times

“Mr. Atkinson sustains dramatic tension in a detailed, comprehensive account of the Revolution’s pivotal middle years. . . . He deftly sketches personalities and incidents while stressing the uncertainty all those involved felt about the outcome.”—The Wall Street Journal

“Atkinson writes with tremendous verve and detail. The result is a book that infuses the events… of the war with striking vibrancy, essentially bringing the conflict to life again. . . . Regular readers of history will have already heard of many of the people Atkinson describes—but after finishing this book, they might feel like they have met them.”—The Washington Post

“Thoroughly researched and richly illustrated, [The Fate of the Day] is popular history at its very best, leading with narrative and rich detail while making often compelling but more analytical insights in passing. . . . Much more than a simple retelling of battles, the book includes an immense amount about the craft of war, its relationship to and impact on politics and society, and the role of grand strategy in fixing the course of a conflict. It also raises a profound question about the role of principle in statecraft.”—Claremont Review of Books

“[Atkinson] has the journalist’s stylistic flair but a stupendous appetite for research that would put many a gray-haired Ph.D. to shame. . . . The result, in The Fate of the Day, is a massive, and massively enjoyable, excursion into the embattled history of the American republic, its imperial British enemy, and its opportunistic ally, France.”—The Washington Free Beacon

“[Atkinson] is vivifying the Revolutionary War in his mesmerizing histories The British Are Coming and The Fate of the Day. The latter, the second book in a planned trilogy . . . is being devoured by lawmakers on Capitol Hill.”—The New York Times

“The Fate of the Day contains those intimate details of conflicts that provide the reader a keen sense of the chaos and terror with which eighteenth-century battles were conducted. . . . [A] compelling, clear narrative, this volume is worth reading with the same care as it was written.”—Journal of the American Revolution

“[A] riveting narrative. . . . Meticulously researched and marvelously told. . . . The Fate of The Day is a triumph of narrative history and cements Atkinson’s place among America’s finest popular historians.”—ARMY Magazine

“As ever with Atkinson, an exemplary work of narrative history.”—Kirkus Reviews, starred review