Author Rick Atkinson won the $100,000 Pritzker Military Library Literature Award for Lifetime Achievement in Military Writing for 2010. The announcement video is embedded above.
The award celebrates “a living author for a body of work that has profoundly enriched the public understanding of American military history.” Previous winners included James M. McPherson, Allan R. Millett, and Gerhard L. Weinberg. The Chicago-based Tawani Foundation will present the award at the library’s Liberty Gala in October.
Pritzker Military Library and Tawani Foundation founder Col. James N. Pritzker had this statement: “[Atkinson’s] independent voice, tempered with respect and compassion, has earned high esteem not only from scholars, journalists, and civilians on the home front but also the members of the Armed Forces about whom he writes. His life and professional dedication to military history truly represent the ‘Citizen’ in Citizen Soldiers, who are essential for the maintenance of democracy.”