NEW ORLEANS – Pulitzer Prize–winning historian and journalist Rick Atkinson delivered a powerful reflection on the endurance of American democracy to a sold-out audience at the Bureau of Governmental Research’s Annual Luncheon, held Oct. 21 at the Hilton Riverside.
Part of BGR’s Janet Howard Speaker Series in Governmental Research, the luncheon drew more than 650 guests, including Mayor-elect Helena Moreno and several public officials, to hear Atkinson discuss The Fate of the Day: The War for America, Fort Ticonderoga to Charleston, 1777–1780, his latest volume on the Revolutionary War.
BGR President and CEO Rebecca Mowbray said the program exemplifies the organization’s mission to promote informed, effective governance. “BGR is excited to welcome Rick Atkinson as our keynote speaker this year, and he continues our tradition of presenting some of the country’s most respected thought leaders to headline our Annual Luncheon,” she said. “Our research moves beyond political headlines to provide practical, constructive guidance. Policymakers, the media and the public turn to BGR because they know they can rely on our independence, rigor and focus on the greater good.”
Reflections on the Revolutionary Spirit
Historian and author C.W. Goodyear, who recently reviewed The Fate of the Day for The Washington Post, introduced Atkinson and described his storytelling as “synesthetic.”
“As the reader turns the pages, they can hear the debates in Britain’s Parliament, smell the gun smoke over Pennsylvania’s battlefields, and feel the chaos of naval combat in the Atlantic,” Goodyear said.
Atkinson’s remarks built on those vivid images, urging the audience to see connections between America’s founding struggles and today’s civic challenges.“Regardless of the trials bedeviling us in 2025—when national unity feels elusive and partisan rancor ever more venomous—we have surmounted greater, even existential, perils throughout our history,” he said.
Lessons from the Revolution
Reflecting on the Revolutionary War’s eight-year campaign, Atkinson noted that “we Americans won our independence by building the better team,” forging alliances with France, Spain, and the Netherlands while Britain fought largely alone.
“This is our earliest diplomatic lesson, and in some respects it’s our most important: the better team usually wins,” he said. Quoting Winston Churchill, Atkinson added, “The only thing worse than fighting with allies is fighting without them.”
“Perhaps we Americans should remember that today before we give a thumb in the eye to our closest friends,” he said. “We’re going to need them.”
Atkinson reminded attendees that the American creation story remains “pertinent, vivid and exhilarating.”
“It’s a reminder that we are the beneficiaries of an enlightened political heritage handed down to us from a revolutionary generation,” he said. “That heritage includes a legacy of personal liberties and strictures on how to divide power and keep it from concentrating in the hands of authoritarians who think primarily of themselves. We cannot allow that to be taken away—or be oblivious to this priceless gift and the hundreds of thousands who have given their lives to affirm and sustain it over the past two and a half centuries.”
Continuing a Landmark Trilogy
The Fate of the Day is the second volume in Atkinson’s trilogy on the American Revolution, following The British Are Coming: The War for America, Lexington to Princeton, 1775–1777, which spent nearly three months on The New York Times bestseller list in 2019. The new volume debuted this year as the No. 1 nonfiction bestseller on The New York Times list.
Before turning to full-time historical writing, Atkinson spent two decades as a reporter, foreign correspondent, and senior editor for The Washington Post.
Closing his remarks, he reflected on the enduring spirit of the Revolution:
“An indomitable American persistence survived from season to season through the war, not without despair, in enough hearts and enough hope to fight on,” he said. Quoting Benjamin Franklin, he added, “‘Our new Constitution is now established. Everything seems to promise it will be durable, but in this world, nothing is certain except death and taxes.’”
“What Franklin is telling us, virtually from the grave,” he continued, “is that there is work to be done. The dream endures, but so does the struggle. America is predicated on an idea — that all of us are created equal, endowed with certain inalienable rights, among them life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That is our pole star, providing us with true north. The perpetual challenge of the American experiment is to draw on these aspirations, make them our own, and hand them to our children and grandchildren as the propulsion system for being the nation our forebears believed we could become.”
BGR’s Mission and Supporters
BGR Board Chair Steven W. Usdin noted that the organization’s 31-member board of private citizens works hard to provide independent, nonpartisan research that promotes effective governance across the Greater New Orleans area.
“BGR is dedicated to informed public policymaking and the effective use of public resources,” Usdin said. “Effective policymaking requires good information, not just good intention.”
The Annual Luncheon was supported by event sponsors Hancock Whitney, Ochsner Health, Delta Utilities, and IMTT.
