Brendan Simms Livres

Eighty years after the stunning and decisive battle, a revelatory new history of Midway

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.

'A superb little book that is micro-history at its best' Washington Post 'The brevity of this remarkable book belies the amount of work that went into it. One can only marvel at how well Professor Simms has gone through the original sources - the surviving journals, reminiscences and letters of the individual combatants - to produce a coherent and gripping narrative' Nick Lezard, Guardian The true story, told minute by minute, of the soldiers who defeated Napoleon - from Brendan Simms, acclaimed author of Europe: The Struggle for Supremacy Europe had been at war for over twenty years. After a short respite in exile, Napoleon had returned to France and threatened another generation of fighting across the devastated and exhausted continent. At the small Belgian village of Waterloo two large, hastily mobilized armies faced each other to decide the future of Europe. Unknown either to Napoleon or Wellington the battle would be decided by a small, ordinary group of British and German troops given the task of defending the farmhouse of La Haye Sainte. This book tells their extraordinary story, brilliantly recapturing the fear, chaos and chanciness of battle and using previously untapped eye-witness reports. Through determination, cunning and fighting spirit, some four hundred soldiers held off many thousands of French and changed the course of history.

'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.

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

This book examines Prussia's response to Napoleon and Napoleonic expansionism in the years before the crushing defeats of Auerstadt and Jena, a period of German history as untypical as it was dramatic. Events are analyzed at the level of high politics, foreign policy and the reform of the executive. The book also addresses matters of general theoretical concern such as high politics, geopolitics and the "primacy of foreign policy". In doing so it goes beyond anything that has been attempted before, and presents a comprehensive and nuanced picture of Prussia before 1806.

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 more than 120 years Great Britain was linked to the German Electorate, later Kingdom, of Hanover through Personal Union. This volume offered the first systematic history of this 'Hanoverian dimension', integrating the burgeoning literature on aspects of the Personal Union into the history of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Britain.

Traces more than five centuries of conflict for control of central Europe as a means for influencing global affairs, providing coverage of such topics as the collapse of the Byzantine Empire and the Ottoman incursion.

Tells the story of Britain's scramble to world power in the 18th century and how, through hubris and incompetence, it lost almost everything it had gained.