Pulitzer Prize winner Rick Atkinson to speak at UF

September 18, 2008

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Pulitzer Prize-winning author and journalist Rick Atkinson will speak at Pugh Hall at 7 p.m. Wednesday. There is limited seating for this event; tickets are available in Room 241 of Pugh Hall on the University of Florida campus.

Atkinson, a staff writer for The Washington Post for more than 20 years, will be discussing the second book in his Liberation Trilogy, the New York Times best-seller “The Day of Battle: The War in Sicily 1943-1944.” Following a lecture on the book, Atkinson will be available for book signing.

In the Pulitzer Prize-winning “An Army of Dawn,” Atkinson documented the Allied triumph in North Africa. Victory there established a key toehold that allowed the Allies to control the Mediterranean and launch attacks into Europe via Italy and Sicily — what Churchill called “the soft underbelly” of the beast. His new book continues this story, recounting the decisive battles, the plight of soldiers and civilians alike, and the top-rank bickering that sometimes resulted in catastrophe.

This event is co-sponsored by the Samuel Proctor Oral History Program and the Department of History.

Contact: Roberta Peacock, 352-392-7168, rpeacock@ufl.edu
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