Latest news with #TheFateoftheDay
The Star
30-06-2025
- Entertainment
- The Star
Who's the mad king now?
MAYBE the mad king, the other one, wasn't so mad after all. 'George III is Abraham Lincoln compared with Trump,' said Rick Atkinson, who is vivifying the Revolutionary War in his mesmerising histories The British Are Coming and The Fate of the Day . The latter, the second book in a planned trilogy, has been on The New York Times bestseller list for six weeks and is being devoured by American lawmakers on Capitol Hill. As the 'No Kings' resistance among Democrats bristles, and as President Donald Trump continues to defy limits on executive power, it is instructive to examine comparisons of Trump with George. 'George isn't the 'royal brute' that Thomas Paine calls him in Common Sense,' Atkinson said. 'He's not the 'tyrant' that Thomas Jefferson calls him in the Declaration of Independence, and he's not the sinister idiot who runs across the stage in Hamilton every night singing You'll Be Back .' ('And when push comes to shove, I will send a fully armed battalion to remind you of my love!') Yes, George had manic episodes that scared people – depicted in Alan Bennett's The Madness of George III, a play made into a movie with Nigel Hawthorne and Helen Mirren. Palace aides are unnerved when the king's urine turns blue. 'He was in a straitjacket for a while, that's how deranged he was,' Atkinson said. 'His last 10 years were spent at Windsor, basically in a cell. He went blind and deaf. He had long white hair, white beard.' George was relentless about his runaway child, America. 'He's ruthless,' Atkinson explained, 'because he believes that if the American colonies are permitted to slip away, it will encourage insurrections in Ireland, in Canada, the British Sugar Islands, the West Indies, in India, and it'll be the beginning of the end of the first British Empire, which has just been created. And it's not going to happen on his watch.' Unlike Trump, who loves to wallow in gilt, repost king memes, and rhapsodise about God's divine plan for him, George did not flout the rule of law. 'The stereotype of him as an ogre is not historically true,' Atkinson said. 'He's called Farmer George because he's interested in agronomy and writes essays on manure.' The historian added, 'You can dislike him, but he's not a reactionary autocrat. He is very attentive to the requirements imposed on him as a consequence of the reforms in the 17th century, where he must be attentive to both houses of Parliament. "He's a child of the Enlightenment. He is a major supporter of both the arts and the sciences.' He plays the harpsichord and the organ, and he's a great patron of the theatre (and doesn't try to co-opt it or force people to watch Cats .) Unlike Trump, Atkinson said, George is not a narcissist: 'He's very committed to the realm, to his family. He marries this obscure, drab German princess, Charlotte, as in Charlottesville, Virginia, and Charlotte, North Carolina. 'They marry six hours after they meet. She learns to play God Save the King on the harpsichord on the voyage from Germany to England. He has the marriage bedroom decorated with 700 yards of blue damask and large basins of goldfish. Because, as you know, nothing says 'I love you' like a bowl of goldfish. He's devoted to her through 15 kids.' Atkinson said that the only similarity between the pious monarch and the impious monarch manqué is 'the use of the military against their own people to enforce the king's will. There are incidents, the Boston Massacre, the Boston Tea Party.' He added, 'This proclivity for using armed forces for domestic suppression of dissent – that's a slippery slope in this country. It led to an eight-year war when George did it, and Lord knows where it's going to lead this time.' This is a poisonous moment for the US, with Trump unleashing the military on American citizens and letting Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers rough up Democratic lawmakers. He's still posting, madly, about the 2020 election being 'a total FRAUD', and now he's calling for a special prosecutor to look into it. With juvenile delinquent Pete Hegseth leading the US military, Trump has recklessly attacked nuclear sites in Iran after jousting with the Islamic regime and threatening to assassinate the Iranian leader. The former opponent of forever wars in the Middle East dropped bombs in the Middle East without military provocation against the United States – which did not work out well for Americans in the past – and dragging the US into another unpredictable, interminable war. We find this truth to be self- evident: This is the moment when we find out just how mad a king Trump is. Atkinson conceded he is as mystified as the rest of America by Trump's affinity for those who aren't bound by the rules by which Americans insist their leaders be bound. 'The fact that we're looking for a monarch to draw parallels with him is telling in and of itself, because that's not what we do. That's what the whole shooting match was about in the 1770s,' he said. — ©2025 The New York Times Company This was originally published in The New York Times.
The Age
22-06-2025
- Entertainment
- The Age
Compared to Trump, ‘mad' King George looks decidedly sane
Maybe the mad king, the other one, wasn't so mad after all. 'George III is Abraham Lincoln compared to Trump,' said Rick Atkinson, who is vivifying the Revolutionary War in his mesmerising histories The British Are Coming and The Fate of the Day. The latter, the second book in a planned trilogy, has been on the New York Times bestseller list for six weeks and is being devoured by lawmakers on Capitol Hill. As the 'No Kings' resistance among Democrats bristles, and as President Donald Trump continues to defy limits on executive power, it is instructive to examine comparisons of Trump to George. 'George isn't the 'royal brute' that Thomas Paine calls him in Common Sense,' Atkinson said. 'He's not the 'tyrant' that Jefferson calls him in the Declaration of Independence, and he's not the sinister idiot who runs across the stage in Hamilton every night singing You'll Be Back.' (And when push comes to shove, I will send a fully armed battalion to remind you of my love). Yes, George had manic episodes that scared people — depicted in Alan Bennett's The Madness of George III, a play made into a movie with Nigel Hawthorne and Helen Mirren. Palace aides are unnerved when the king's urine turns blue. 'He was in a straitjacket for a while, that's how deranged he was,' Atkinson said. 'His last 10 years were spent at Windsor, basically in a cell. He went blind and deaf. He had long white hair, white beard.' George was relentless about his runaway child, America. 'He's ruthless,' Atkinson explained, 'because he believes that if the American colonies are permitted to slip away, it will encourage insurrections in Ireland, in Canada, the British Sugar Islands, the West Indies, in India, and it'll be the beginning of the end of the first British Empire, which has just been created. And it's not going to happen on his watch.' Unlike Trump, who loves to wallow in gilt, repost king memes and rhapsodise about God's divine plan for him, George did not flout the rule of law.
Sydney Morning Herald
22-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Sydney Morning Herald
Compared to Trump, ‘mad' King George looks decidedly sane
Maybe the mad king, the other one, wasn't so mad after all. 'George III is Abraham Lincoln compared to Trump,' said Rick Atkinson, who is vivifying the Revolutionary War in his mesmerising histories The British Are Coming and The Fate of the Day. The latter, the second book in a planned trilogy, has been on the New York Times bestseller list for six weeks and is being devoured by lawmakers on Capitol Hill. As the 'No Kings' resistance among Democrats bristles, and as President Donald Trump continues to defy limits on executive power, it is instructive to examine comparisons of Trump to George. 'George isn't the 'royal brute' that Thomas Paine calls him in Common Sense,' Atkinson said. 'He's not the 'tyrant' that Jefferson calls him in the Declaration of Independence, and he's not the sinister idiot who runs across the stage in Hamilton every night singing You'll Be Back.' (And when push comes to shove, I will send a fully armed battalion to remind you of my love). Yes, George had manic episodes that scared people — depicted in Alan Bennett's The Madness of George III, a play made into a movie with Nigel Hawthorne and Helen Mirren. Palace aides are unnerved when the king's urine turns blue. 'He was in a straitjacket for a while, that's how deranged he was,' Atkinson said. 'His last 10 years were spent at Windsor, basically in a cell. He went blind and deaf. He had long white hair, white beard.' George was relentless about his runaway child, America. 'He's ruthless,' Atkinson explained, 'because he believes that if the American colonies are permitted to slip away, it will encourage insurrections in Ireland, in Canada, the British Sugar Islands, the West Indies, in India, and it'll be the beginning of the end of the first British Empire, which has just been created. And it's not going to happen on his watch.' Unlike Trump, who loves to wallow in gilt, repost king memes and rhapsodise about God's divine plan for him, George did not flout the rule of law.
New York Times
24-04-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
Rick Atkinson Doesn't Want to Stand on a Soapbox
In an email interview, the Pulitzer Prize winner welcomed more writers onto his turf and revealed a 'soft spot' for one character in 'War and Peace.' SCOTT HELLER What books are on your night stand? Leo Damrosch, 'Jonathan Swift: His Life and His World'; Ada Ferrer, 'Cuba'; Ron Chernow, 'The Warburgs'; David Petraeus and Andrew Roberts, 'Conflict: The Evolution of Warfare From 1945 to Ukraine'; Brian Capon, 'Botany for Gardeners: An Introduction to the Science of Plants'; and, for grandchildren sleepovers, Maurice Sendak, 'Where the Wild Things Are.' How do you organize your books? My 'books to get' list for 'The Fate of the Day' exceeded 2,500 titles, of which I own almost half, including 19 volumes of 'The Papers of George Washington.' Those books snake through my home office and up through the third floor, alphabetically by author. Titles that I won't need for the final volume in my American Revolution trilogy are consigned to the basement, the garage or a storage locker in Rockville, Md. In the living room I've got a built-in case for books by my former Washington Post colleagues. Bob Woodward alone occupies a long shelf. What kind of reader were you as a child? Ardent and middlebrow. In grade school I devoured the Hardy Boys and Tom Swift, then as a young teen discovered the enchantment of books like 'The Complete Sherlock Holmes' and 'Ivanhoe,' as well as the magical rhythm of our language in poems like Alfred Noyes's 'The Highwayman' and Longfellow's 'The Wreck of the Hesperus.' Reading William L. Shirer's 'The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich' when I was about 15 put ideas in my head. What's the last great book you read? Hilary Mantel's 'The Mirror and the Light,' the final volume of her dazzling trilogy about Thomas Cromwell and Henry VIII. I read it very slowly before bedtime while writing 'The Fate of the Day,' hoping for inspiration. Who is your favorite fictional hero or heroine? I've got a soft spot for Pierre Bezúkhov from 'War and Peace.' What's your favorite book no one else has heard of? 'Conquerors' Road: An Eyewitness Report of Germany 1945,' by Osmar White, an Australian journalist who bore witness with a conviction that, in his words, 'the living have the cause of the dead in trust.' As a former war correspondent, I find it extraordinary that White had trouble getting the thing published. While generously praising 'The British Are Coming,' Joseph J. Ellis maintained that you are 'less interested in making an argument than telling a story.' Do you agree? Absolutely. If you believe your calling is to be a storyteller, don't regret not being a polemicist. I've also been called an antiquarian, a pointillist and a scribbler. Guilty on all counts. What are the challenges in writing the middle volume of a trilogy? You can't presume that the reader has read Volume 1, so a bit of back story must be stitched in without being tedious. Recurrent characters like Washington and King George III reappear in the narrative, but I can't backtrack excessively as we watch them grow, evolve or devolve in the second volume. Perhaps most important for a narrative writer is the need to brachiate, like a gibbon in the treetops, using momentum to keep the story moving. What was the most useful advice your editor offered on this book? I've had the same editor, John Sterling, since 1987, for all eight of my books. I distilled his wisdom into a four-word injunction that I keep on a sign next to my writing desk: Get On With It. Tell me about a supporting character in the book who deserves even more recognition. Maj. Gen. Nathanael Greene is familiar to readers of military history, but should be known to all Americans. A lapsed Quaker from Rhode Island, he was second only to Washington as the Continental Army's indispensable man. Along with crediting 'a hundred or more' archivists, librarians and historians, you offer some thanks 'for corralling misbehaving electrons.' Explain. I can break a computer just by looking at it. I'm grateful to those who fix them. What impact might government cuts have on your ability to research the next volume? Covid was bad enough in constricting archival research and library visits for a couple years. Let's hope, for the sake of scholarship, that there's no shortsighted squeezing of the National Archives, Library of Congress, national battlefield parks and other cultural troves. If you could require the president to read one book, what would it be? John Hersey's 'Hiroshima.' It's short. Which subjects do you wish more authors would write about? At the risk of encouraging talented competitors, war. The more lyrical voices that capture and convey it, the better the chance of readers comprehending, viscerally, how grotesque it is. You're organizing a literary dinner party. Which three writers, dead or alive, do you invite? Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson and Edward Gibbon, who was a member of Parliament during the American Revolution even as he was writing 'The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.'
