Historian at LA Library reminds audiences of past resilience

For a historian who writes about war, Rick Atkinson is surprisingly optimistic. The Pulitzer Prizewinning author and former journalist - who recently released the second volume in a trilogy of books about the American Revolution - believes that the bedrock of American democracy is solid enough to withstand any assaults on its founding principles.

- Jessica Gelt, Tribune News Service

As the guest of honour at a Sunday night dinner sponsored by the Library Foundation of Los Angeles as part of its biennial Literary Feasts fundraiser, Atkinson was the most upbeat person at the event. Speaking to about 18 guests gathered around two circular tables carefully laid out on the back patio at the home of fellow writers and hosts Meenakshi and Liaquat Ahamed, Atkinson buoyed the flagging spirits of those certain that the country was currently dangling on the precipice of disaster at the hands of the Trump administration.

"We're the beneficiaries of an enlightened political heritage handed down to us from that founding generation, and it includes strictures on how to divide power and keep it from concentrating in the hands of authoritarians who think primarily of themselves," Atkinson said with the cheery aplomb of a man who has spent the bulk of his time burrowing deep inside archives filled with harrowing stories of the darkest days the world has ever seen. "We can't let that slip away. We can't allow it to be taken away, and we can't allow ourselves to forget the hundreds of thousands who've given their lives to affirm and sustain it over the past 250 years."