The 2026 Dole Lecture featuring Rick Atkinson
April 13 @ 7:00 pm - 8:30 pm
A free ticket is required to attend this event.
Please review all information on this page to help you claim a free ticket and prepare to attend this event. Free tickets will be available starting Tuesday, March 24 at 10 a.m. and can be claimed on the KU Events Calendar.
If you have questions that are not answered here, please contact the Dole Institute at doleinstitute@ku.edu or (785) 864-4900.
In honor of America at 250, Pulitzer Prize-winning author and historian Rick Atkinson joins Dole Institute Director Audrey Coleman to discuss his career and work process, the legacy of World War II and the historian’s craft in the 21st century, and his new book, The Fate of the Day, the second of The Revolution Trilogy.
Limited copies of The Fate of the Day will be available for purchase at the event. Following the program, Rick will be available to sign copies.
This program is presented in partnership with the Watkins Museum of History and the Lawrence Public Library
About the Dole Lecture
Held each spring, the Dole Lecture commemorates the date on which Senator Bob Dole was critically wounded while serving in Italy during World War II. To honor his courageous recovery and commitment to serve the nation, the Institute welcomes a guest who embodies the commitments that Senator Dole held throughout his career in public service.
About Rick Atkinson
Rick Atkinson has authored eight narrative histories spanning five American wars. His most recent book, The Fate of the Day: The War for America, Fort Ticonderoga to Charleston, 1777-1780, debuted at #1 on the New York Times nonfiction bestseller list. It joins the earlier bestseller The British Are Coming: The War for America, Lexington to Princeton, 1775-1777 as part of his Revolution Trilogy, which chronicles the events that unfolded during the American Revolutionary War.
He previously wrote the Liberation Trilogy, a narrative history of the Allied campaign to liberate Europe in World War II. The first volume, An Army at Dawn: The War in North Africa, 1942-1943, received the 2003 Pulitzer Prize in history. The second and third volumes in the trilogy, The Day of Battle: The War in Sicily and Italy, 1943-1944 and The Guns at Last Light: The War in Western Europe, 1944-1945, were both New York Times bestsellers, with The Guns at Last Light reaching #1.
Atkinson’s additional works include The Long Gray Line, a narrative saga on the West Point Military Academy class of 1966; Crusade, a history of the Persian Gulf War; and In the Company of Soldiers, which chronicles Atkinson’s time embedded with the 101st Airborne Division, led by General David H. Petraeus, during the invasion of Iraq in 2003.
Throughout his career, Atkinson has been honored for his work as both a historian and journalist. In addition to receiving the 2003 Pulitzer Prize in history, he also received the 1982 Pulitzer Prize for national reporting, and was part of the Washington Post team awarded the 1999 Pulitzer Prize for public service. His other honors include the 1989 George Polk Award for national reporting, the 1989 John Hancock Award for excellence in business writing, the 2003 Society for Military History Distinguished Book Award, the 2007 Gerald R. Ford Award for Distinguished Reporting on National Defense, the 2015 Peggy V. Helmerich Distinguished Author Award, and the 2020 George Washington Prize for the year’s best work on the American founding era, among others.
Atkinson began his journalism career in 1976 writing for the Morning Sun in Pittsburg, Kansas. He joined the Kansas City Times in 1977, and moved to the Washington Post in 1983. During his two decades at the Post, he served as a reporter, foreign correspondent, bureau chief, assistant managing editor, and senior editor. His reporting covered Germany and NATO, conflicts in Somalia and Bosnia, the 101st Airborne during the invasion of Iraq in 2003, and roadside bombs in Iraq and Afghanistan in 2007.
Born in Munich, Germany, Atkinson is the son of a U.S. Army officer and grew up on military posts. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from East Carolina University, and a Master of Arts degree in English literature from the University of Chicago. He and his wife, Dr. Jane Chestnut Atkinson of Lawrence, Kansas, live in Washington, D.C.
About Fate of the Day
In the second volume of the landmark American Revolution trilogy by the Pulitzer Prize-winning and #1 New York Times bestselling author of The British Are Coming, George Washington’s army fights on the knife edge between victory and defeat.
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 exponentially 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, an infamous winter of misery in 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 fresh perspective on the demands that a democracy makes on each of its citizens.
Attending this event
A free ticket is required to attend this event. Tickets can be claimed online through the KU Events Calendar. Once you complete your registration, a ticket will be issued to the email address(es) you provided.
Should you be unable to claim tickets or attend, you can stream this program for free on the Dole Institute’s website and YouTube channel.
Getting to the Lied Center
The Lied Center of Kansas (1600 Stewart Dr. Lawrence, KS 66045) is located next door to the Dole Institute. Free parking is available in Lots 300A-D. Accessible parking is available in the rows closest to the building.
Doors to the Lied Center will open at 6 p.m. Guests must enter through the Main Entrance (south side of building). Be prepared to show your ticket to staff at the building or auditorium entrances.
Accessibility Information
The Lied Center has barrier-free entrances and designated accessible seating areas throughout the auditorium.
A limited number of accessible seats are available to be claimed online. If you have additional accommodations, please contact the Dole Institute at doleinstitute@ku.edu or (785) 864-4900 at least one day prior to the event.
A hearing loop system is available in designated areas for guests to access using a T-Coil hearing aid. Individuals without compatible devices can access the loop system with headsets provided by the Lied Center.
