{"id":23152,"date":"2026-08-27T11:22:47","date_gmt":"2026-08-27T15:22:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/?p=23152"},"modified":"2026-08-28T11:26:58","modified_gmt":"2026-08-28T15:26:58","slug":"strong-interest-drives-venue-change-for-presidential-lecture-with-rick-atkinson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/2026\/Q3\/strong-interest-drives-venue-change-for-presidential-lecture-with-rick-atkinson","title":{"rendered":"Strong interest drives venue change for Presidential Lecture with Rick Atkinson"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. \u2014 The Presidential Lecture Series event next month featuring Pulitzer Prize-winning author and historian Rick Atkinson is being moved to the larger Loeb Playhouse in Stewart Center because of strong interest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The event, titled \u201cAmerica @ 250: Celebrating Freedom\u2019s Giant Leap,\u201d is at 6 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 16, in Loeb. The event is free and open to the general public, but a ticket is still required. For tickets and additional details, go <a href=\"https:\/\/am.ticketmaster.com\/purdue\/buy\/ism\/QVRLSU5TTA==\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">here<\/a>. Tickets for the original Fowler Hall venue will still be honored at Loeb, so there is no need to reregister.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Purdue Convocations <a href=\"https:\/\/convocations.purdue.edu\/policies\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">bag policy<\/a> will be in effect for the event. A commemorative gift will be given to departing attendees as part of Purdue\u2019s celebration of America\u2019s 250th. Parking ticket validation also will be available for the Grant Street Parking Garage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This event marks the first moderated by Purdue University President Mitch Daniels since he returned as interim president in July. Daniels launched the lecture series in 2014, his first full year as the university\u2019s president.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Atkinson is the author of the New York Times bestseller \u201cThe British Are Coming: The War for America, Lexington to Princeton, 1775-1777,\u201d the first volume of his acclaimed Revolution Trilogy. The second volume in the planned trilogy, \u201cThe Fate of the Day: The War for America, Fort Ticonderoga to Charleston, 1777-1780,\u201d was a New York Times No. 1 nonfiction bestseller in 2025. The book continued Atkinson\u2019s sweeping narrative of the Revolution, capturing the conflict\u2019s critical middle years with vivid storytelling and deep historical insight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/2026\/Q3\/pulitzer-prize-winning-historian-rick-atkinson-to-headline-next-presidential-lecture\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Previous news release announcing Atkinson\u2019s Presidential Lecture.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n<div id=\"note\" class=\"post-content__attribution \">\n    <div class=\"columns\"> \n                    <div class=\"column\"> \n                <p class=\"post-content__source\">\n                    <strong>Media contact:<\/strong> Trevor Peters, <a href=\"mailto:peter237@purdue.edu\">peter237@purdue.edu<\/a>                <\/p>\n            <\/div>\n                    <\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. \u2014 The Presidential Lecture Series event next month featuring Pulitzer Prize-winning author and historian Rick Atkinson is being moved to the larger Loeb Playhouse in Stewart Center because of strong interest. The event, titled \u201cAmerica @ 250:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":22926,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"department":[],"source":[29],"purdue_today_topic":[],"coauthors":[243],"class_list":["post-23152","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general","source-purdue-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23152","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23152"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23152\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23153,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23152\/revisions\/23153"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22926"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23152"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23152"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23152"},{"taxonomy":"department","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/department?post=23152"},{"taxonomy":"source","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/source?post=23152"},{"taxonomy":"purdue_today_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/purdue_today_topic?post=23152"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=23152"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}