Rick Atkinson on What We Get Wrong About the Founding

We grew up with the founders embalmed in reverence — a bloodless revolution, marble men, and stupid lobster-backs lined up to be shot. Rick Atkinson, two volumes into his Revolution Trilogy, is here to complicate all of it. We talked with him about the violent civil war at the heart of the founding, why the most powerful empire on earth lost, and how a historian decides who in the archive is telling the truth.

Topics discussed:

• The Revolution as America's first civil war

• Why Britain — with the world's greatest navy — couldn't win

• Reliable narrators, frauds, and how history actually gets written

• The human cost of war, from Valley Forge to "remember the ladies"

• American exceptionalism at 250, and why Atkinson stays optimistic

Resources mentioned:

The Fate of the Day by Rick Atkinson

The British Are Coming by Rick Atkinson

John Adams by David McCullough

The American Revolution (Ken Burns, PBS)

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Pantsuit Politics is hosted by Sarah Stewart Holland and Beth Silvers. Produced by Studio D Podcast Production. Our theme music was composed by Xander Singh with inspiration from original work by Dante Lima.

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=== COVER PHRASE OPTIONS (thumbnail only — do NOT publish in description) ===

- This Nation Was Born Bickering

- The Revolution We Misremember

- "America Is Beyond Your Reach"

- It Was a Civil War

- Born Bickering