Rick Atkinson on Why He Wrote World War II Trilogy

Rick Atkinson on World War II Trilogy: "I conceived of it right from the beginning as a trilogy, because living in Germany and I was there for that endless succession of, of, commemorations of the, of World War two, the 50th anniversary commemorations of Normandy and the battle of the bulge and the end of the war in Europe. So I was immersed in it, and I'd been born in Germany, and again, I'd grown up in the army of the 50s and 60s. That was very much, alive with the memory of World War two. And I had, two small, epiphanies. One was that and the great events in American history are bottomless. People will be writing about Abraham Lincoln 500 years from now. And even though I was told, you know, there are 60,000, World War II titles on Amazon, what do you got new to say about it? Well, I have a lot new to say about it. And the other epiphany was that you could tell the story as a triptych. Three panels. It's the liberation of Europe, starts in North Africa, and then it evolves 100 miles across the Mediterranean to Sicily and Italy. And then at Normandy, you have the final panel. And so I thought that lends itself naturally to it."

SUNDAYAmerica's Book Club with Rick Atkinson6pm ET on CSPAN

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