Rick Atkinson

Rick Atkinson is the reigning chronicler of World War II. More than 15 years ago he set out to write the "Liberation Trilogy," the most comprehensive story of the Allied Forces in Europe and North Africa. An Arm at Dawn: The War in North Africa, 1942-1943, the first in the series, won a Pulitzer Prize for history and was a New York Times bestseller, as was the second book, The Day of Battle: The War in Sicily and Italy, 1943-1944.The Guns at Last Light tells the story of the final year of the European war, from Normandy and the invasion of southern France through all the monumental struggles leading to the Third Reich's surrender on May 8, 1945. The book includes 80 black and white photographs, some of which have never been seen before, plus 29 original maps drawn by master cartographer Gene Thorp.Rick Atkinson is a former staff writer and editor at the Washington Post. His many awards include a Pulitzer Prize for journalism, the George Polk Award, and the Pritzker Military Library Literature Award. Recorded On: Tuesday, June 18, 2013