Brendan Simms

Half a millennium of European warfare brilliantly retold by masterly historian Brendan Simms. At the heart of Europe's history lies a puzzle. In most of the world humankind has created enormous political frameworks, whether ancient (such as China) or modern (such as the United States). Sprawling empires, kingdoms or republics appear to be the norm. By contrast Europe has remained stubbornly chaotic and fractured into often amazingly tiny pieces, with each serious attempt to unify the continent (by Charles V, Napoleon and Hitler) thwarted. In this marvelously ambitious and exciting new book, Brendan Simms tells the story of Europe's constantly shifting geopolitics and the peculiar circumstances that have made it both so impossible to dominate, but also so dynamic and ferocious. It is the story of a group of highly competitive and mutually suspicious dynasties, but also of a continent uniquely prone to interference from 'semi-detached' elements, such as Russia, the Ottoman Empire, Britain and (just as centrally to Simms' argument) the United States. Europe: The Struggle for Supremacy will become the standard work on this crucial subject - and an extremely enjoyable one.

Kniha cambridgeského historika Brendana Simmse je široce založenou a erudovanou studií zabývající se vývojem mocenského zápasu o Evropu v celém novověku od pádu Cařihradu do současnosti. Látka je rozvržena do osmi kapitol odpovídajících periodizaci boje o nadvládu nad starým kontinentem a neustálým proměnám mocenských konstelací: Impéria (1453–1648), Nástupnictví (1649–1755), Revoluce (1756–1813), Osamostatňování (1814–1866), Sjednocování (1876–1916), Utopie (1917–1944), Rozdělování (1945–1973), Demokracie (1974–2011). Hlavní tezí knihy je, že v dějinách některé věci navzdory změnám zůstávají stejné, a k nim patří zásadní záležitosti bezpečnosti na našem kontinentu: sen o univerzální říši a ústřední postavení i role Svaté říše římské národa německého a poté Německa spojujícího „jako polovodič“ různé složky evropské rovnováhy. Svou práci autor nepovažuje za autoritativní příručku, nýbrž za vodítko ke zkoumání toho, jakým způsobem se podstatné problémy evropského mocenského zápasu řešily v minulosti. Proto také, pojednává-li v závěrečné části práce o dnešku, nekončí žádnými věštbami, ale místo toho raději klade otázky. Přesto ovšem přichází s postřehem, že dnešní Německo stojí před dilematem, zda se má celou svou hospodářskou vahou postavit za pokračující sjednocování Evropy, anebo usilovat o vlastní ekonomickou hegemonii. Simms zároveň tvrdí, že dnešní Evropa se může skutečně sjednotit (podobně jak to alespoň částečně a přechodně činila tváří v tvář osmanskému nebezpečí) pouze pod vlivem velkého vnějšího či vnitřního ohrožení a táže se, zda se to stane ve formě konfrontace s putinovským Ruskem, k níž dojde například kvůli pobaltským státům, Bělorusku či Ukrajině, nebo rozhodného měření sil s novodobým islamistickým chalífátem vzniklým na Středním východě, případně střetnutí s Čínou pronikající do oblastí, jež jsou ni životně důležité. Kniha je určena jak znalcům a odborníkům v oblasti historiografie, tak všem zájemcům o historii a politiku z řada širší veřejnosti.

A revelatory new biography of Adolf Hitler from the acclaimed historian Brendan Simms Adolf Hitler is one of the most studied men in history, and yet the most important things we think we know about him are wrong. As Brendan Simms's major new biography shows, Hitler's main preoccupation was not, as widely believed, the threat of Bolshevism, but that of international capitalism and Anglo-America. These two fears drove both his anti-semitism and his determination to secure the 'living space' necessary to survive in a world dominated by the British Empire and the United States. Drawing on new sources, Brendan Simms traces the way in which Hitler's ideology emerged after the First World War. The United States and the British Empire were, in his view, models for Germany's own empire, similarly founded on appropriation of land, racism and violence. Hitler's aim was to create a similarly global future for Germany - a country seemingly doomed otherwise not just to irrelevance, but, through emigration and foreign influence, to extinction. His principal concern during the resulting cataclysm was not just what he saw as the clash between German and Jews, or German and Slav, but above all that between Germans and what he called the 'Anglo-Saxons'. In the end only dominance of the world would have been enough to achieve Hitler's objectives, and it ultimately required a coalition of virtually the entire world to defeat him. Brendan Simms's new book is the first to explain Hitler's beliefs fully, demonstrating how, as ever, it is ideas that are the ultimate source of the most murderous behaviour.

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.

SHORTLISTED FOR THE MARK LYNTON HISTORY PRIZE 2020 A DAILY TELEGRAPH BOOK OF THE YEAR 2019 A revelatory new biography of Adolf Hitler from the acclaimed historian Brendan Simms Adolf Hitler is one of the most studied men in history, and yet the most important things we think we know about him are wrong. As Brendan Simms's major new biography shows, Hitler's main preoccupation was not, as widely believed, the threat of Bolshevism, but that of international capitalism and Anglo-America. These two fears drove both his anti-semitism and his determination to secure the 'living space' necessary to survive in a world dominated by the British Empire and the United States. Drawing on new sources, Brendan Simms traces the way in which Hitler's ideology emerged after the First World War. The United States and the British Empire were, in his view, models for Germany's own empire, similarly founded on appropriation of land, racism and violence. Hitler's aim was to create a similarly global future for Germany - a country seemingly doomed otherwise not just to irrelevance, but, through emigration and foreign influence, to extinction. His principal concern during the resulting cataclysm was not just what he saw as the clash between German and Jews, or German and Slav, but above all that between Germans and what he called the 'Anglo-Saxons'. In the end only dominance of the world would have been enough to achieve Hitler's objectives, and it ultimately required a coalition of virtually the entire world to defeat him. Brendan Simms's new book is the first to explain Hitler's beliefs fully, demonstrating how, as ever, it is ideas that are the ultimate source of the most murderous behaviour.

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. '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

Adolf Hitler patrí medzi najviac skúmané postavy dejín. Myslíme si, že o ňom vieme veľa, a pritom v tom najdôležitejšom sa mýlime. Ako ukazuje Simmsov nový, pozoruhodný životopis, Hitler sa navzdory všeobecnému presvedčeniu neobával ani tak boľševizmu ako skôr anglo-amerického a globálneho kapitalizmu. Tieto obavy podnecovali jeho antisemitizmus a odhodlanie zabezpečiť „životný priestor“ a životnú úroveň potrebné na prežitie vo svete, ktorý ovládli Britské impérium a Spojené štáty americké. Brendan Simms vychádza z nových zdrojov a sleduje spôsob, ako sa zrodila Hitlerova ideológia po 1. svetovej vojne. Spojené štáty americké a Britské impérium mu podľa neho slúžili ako vzor pre vlastnú Nemeckú ríšu, založenú na prisvojení si pôdy, rasizme a násilí. Hitlerovým cieľom bolo vytvoriť podobnú globálnu budúcnosť pre Nemecko – krajinu, ktorá by inak zostala bezvýznamnou, no vinou vysťahovalectva a zahraničných vplyvov aj odsúdenou na vyhynutie. Jeho hlavnou obavou počas výslednej kataklizmy nebolo len to, čo vnímal ako konflikt medzi Nemcami a Židmi alebo Nemcami a Slovanmi, ale predovšetkým konflikt medzi Nemcami a tými, ktorých nazýval „Anglosasi“. Iba vláda nad svetom mohla uspokojiť Hitlerove nároky a na jeho porážku bola napokon potrebná koalícia takmer celého sveta. Simmsova nová kniha ako prvá podrobne vysvetľuje Hitlerove presvedčenia, pričom ukazuje, že hlavným zdrojom vražedného správania sú ako vždy väčšinou idey.