Eighty years after the stunning and decisive battle, a revelatory new history of Midway
Brendan Simms Books
January 1, 1967
Brendan Simms is Professor of the History of International Relations at the University of Cambridge. His work focuses on international history, particularly post-1945. He lectures and leads seminars examining the complex relationships between nations and powers in the modern era. His academic focus underscores a deep interest in the historical contexts that shape the contemporary world.
Europe : the struggle for supremacy, from 1453 to the present
- 800 pages
- 28 hours of reading
At the heart of Europe's history lies a puzzle: unlike much of the world, which has seen the rise of large political entities, Europe has remained chaotic and fractured. Attempts to unify the continent—by figures such as Charles V, Napoleon, and Hitler, and even the European Union—have often failed. This ambitious book explores Europe's shifting geopolitics and the unique circumstances that have made domination difficult yet fostered dynamism. It examines a landscape of competitive monarchies and republics whose rivalries fueled overseas expansion, particularly in the Americas. Additionally, it highlights the influence of external powers like Russia, the Ottoman Empire, Britain, and notably, the United States. Central to this narrative is Germany, a region that has historically been both a target and a threat due to its wealth and strategic position. This work promises to be the definitive account of this critical subject, offering a vivid and engaging exploration of Europe's complexities. As the continent's future appears uncertain once again, this timely examination is particularly relevant.
'History at its scintillating best ... hard-hitting, revelatory and superbly researched' Andrew Roberts, author of Churchill: Walking with Destiny 'A rare achievement ... sure to become an instant classic' John Lewis Gaddis, Yale University This gripping book dramatizes the extraordinarily compressed and terrifying period between the surprise Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and Hitler's declaration of war on the United States. These five days transformed much of the world and have shaped our own experience ever since. Simms and Laderman's aim in the book is to show how this agonizing period had no inevitability about it and that innumerable outcomes were possible. Key leaders around the world were taking decisions with often poor and confused information, under overwhelming pressure and knowing that they could be facing personal and national disaster. And yet, there were also long-standing assumptions that shaped these decisions, both consciously and unconsciously. Hitler's American Gamble is a superb work of history, both as an explanation for the course taken by the Second World War and as a study in statecraft and political choices.
Europe: The struggle for supremacy, 1453 to the present
- 720 pages
- 26 hours of reading
Tells the story of a group of highly competitive and mutually suspicious dynasties, and also of a continent uniquely prone to interference from 'semi-detached' elements, such as Russia, the Ottoman Empire, Britain and the United States
On November 8, 2016, Donald Trump won the American presidential election, to the surprise of many across the globe. Now that Trump is Commander-in-Chief of the most powerful country on earth, Americans and non-Americans alike have been left wondering what this will mean for the world. It has been claimed that Trump's foreign policy views are impulsive, inconsistent and that they were improvised on the campaign trail. However, drawing on interviews from as far back as 1980, Charlie Laderman and Brendan Simms show that this assumption is dangerously false. They reveal that Trump has had a consistent position on international trade and America's alliances since he first considered running for president in the late 1980s. Furthermore, his foreign policy views have deep roots in American history. For the new President, almost every international problem that has confronted the United States can be explained by the mistakes of its leaders. Yet, after decades of dismissing America's leaders as fools and denouncing their diplomacy, Trump must now prove that he can do better.Over the past three decades, he has been laying out in interviews, articles, books and tweets what amounts to a foreign policy philosophy. This book reveals the world view that Trump brings to the Oval Office. It shows how that world view was formed, what might result if it is applied in policy terms and the potential consequences for the rest of the world
For generations we have been hypnotised by the catastrophic, implausible way that Hitler came to seize power - the familiar story of the innumerable obstacles which fell aside to allow such a strange figure to rule a major European state. Brendan Simms's major new biography has a very different focus. It is the first attempt fully to get to grips with the true origins of Hitler's ideas themselves. Simms focuses on what those ideas really were and how they emerged. This gives a very different picture of Hitler, highlighting both how deeply he had always reflected wider (and now forgotten) paranoid geopolitical German concepts, as well as what was original, particularly Hitler's obsession with the United States (which loomed far greater in his imagination than the Soviet Union). It was this poisonous mix which was to have such a terrible impact on Europe's future. Brendan Simms's new book is the first to take these beliefs seriously, demonstrating how, as ever, it is ideas that are the true source of the most murderous behaviour
Fünf Tage im Dezember
Von Pearl Harbor bis zur Kriegserklärung Hitlers an die USA – Wie sich 1941 das Schicksal der Welt entschied
Wie unberechenbar ist Donald Trump wirklich? Was wir von dem US-Präsidenten zu erwarten haben Donald Trump erscheint vielen als Politiker, der das Handwerk nicht beherrscht und dessen politische Äußerungen impulsiv und widersprüchlich sind. Doch damit unterliegen wir einem Trugschluss. In einer scharfsinnigen Analyse zeigen die Historiker Brendan Simms und Charlie Laderman, dass Donald Trump seit seinen ersten öffentlichen Äußerungen in den Achtzigerjahren beharrlich eine Linie verfolgt: Amerika, das von aller Welt ausgenutzt wird, wieder den nötigen Respekt zu verschaffen und zu alter Größe zu führen. Und dafür braucht es, nach den vorhergehenden Versagern im Amt, einen starken Präsidenten: Donald Trump. Ein erhellender Einblick in Trumps weltpolitische Vorstellungen.
Kampf um Vorherrschaft
Eine deutsche Geschichte Europas 1453 bis heute
500 Jahre Machtkämpfe um die Mitte Europas In einem großen, umfassenden Wurf erzählt Brendan Simms die Geschichte Europas seit dem 15. Jahrhundert. Er beschreibt sie als Geschichte ständig wechselnder Machtverhältnisse und Rivalitäten, des Kampfs der großen und kleinen europäischen Länder um Einfluss sowie der Begehrlichkeiten entfernterer Mächte wie des Osmanischen Reiches oder der USA – vor allem aber schildert er sie als Geschichte der Auseinandersetzung um die Mitte des Kontinents, vom Heiligen Römischen Reich deutscher Nation bis zum wiedervereinigten Deutschland. Ausstattung: mit Abbildungen
500 Jahre Machtkämpfe um die Mitte Europas In einem großen, umfassenden Wurf erzählt Brendan Simms die Geschichte Europas seit dem 15. Jahrhundert. Er beschreibt sie als Geschichte ständig wechselnder Machtverhältnisse und Rivalitäten, des Kampfs der großen und kleinen europäischen Länder um Einfluss sowie der Begehrlichkeiten entfernterer Mächte wie des Osmanischen Reiches oder der USA – vor allem aber schildert er sie als Geschichte der Auseinandersetzung um die Mitte des Kontinents, vom Heiligen Römischen Reich deutscher Nation bis zum wiedervereinigten Deutschland. Brendan Simms’ großartige Darstellung wird von vielen bereits mit Spannung erwartet und lädt gerade in diesen Tagen zu kontroversen Diskussionen ein.
