Hatfield Lecture Series: Rick Atkinson
Join the Oregon Historical Society for the 2026 Mark O. Hatfield Lecture Series, featuring four powerful voices exploring democracy, human rights, identity, and revolution. This year’s speakers include Keisha Blain, Michael Luo, Megan Kate Nelson, and Pulitzer Prize–winner Rick Atkinson.
Rick Atkinson is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of eight narrative histories about five American wars, including The Long Gray Line, the Liberation Trilogy (An Army at Dawn, The Day of Battle, and The Guns at Last Light), and The British Are Coming, the first volume of the Revolution Trilogy. He has won numerous awards, including Pulitzer Prizes for history and journalism.
In the second volume of the Revolution trilogy, George Washington’s army fights on the knife edge between victory and defeat. Fate of the Day: The War for America, Fort Ticonderoga to Charleston, 1777–1780 provides a riveting narrative covering the middle years of the American Revolution. 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 a fresh perspective on the demands that a democracy makes on each of its citizens.
Lectures take place in person at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall as well as via livestream.
Thanks to America 250 Oregon Hatfield Lecture Series Sponsor the Keller Foundation, OHS will take the Hatfield Lecture Series on the road for special events in Bend on May 13 and Medford on May 14 hosted by the Deschutes Historical Museum and the Southern Oregon Historical Society.