Audiobooks by Brendan Simms

The Baltic Sea: A Geopolitical History

"The Baltic Sea is more than an inland sea – it is a historic geopolitical stage. From maritime travel in the Viking era toa NATO-dominated region, this brackish inland sea has been a lifeline for people and countries in northern Europe. The Baltic Sea has served as a hub for economic and political relations – with the dominance of the Hanseatic League in the Middle Ages, the Great Power Battles between Sweden, Poland-Lithuania and Russia, and the dramatic shifts in the aftermath of the Napoleonic Wars as well as two World Wars and the Cold War. But the Baltic Sea is also a place of cooperation. Since the fall of the Soviet Union, the region has been characterized by integration and growth – a development that once again is being challenged by new geopolitical tensions. How will the future be affected by energy flows, climate change and military strategies? In this comprehensive anthology, leading scholars in history, political science, international relations and other subjects are brought together to examine the driving forces that have formed the Baltic Sea region from the 13th century until today."

Axel Boltenberg, Bogusław Dybaś, Brendan Simms, Christian Bueger, Henrik Meinander, Hugo Bromley, Izabela Surwillo, Johan Rönnby, Jonas Kjellén, Jurgita Verbickiené, Justyna Wubs Mrozewicz, Kjell Engelbrekt, Kristian Gerner, Kurt Villads Jensen, Magnus Petersson, Martin Hall, Mats Hallenberg, Morten Nordhagen Ottosen, Peter Haldén, Peter Krönvik, Peteris Vanags, Rasmus Glenthoj, Rolf Fabricius Warming, Tobias Boestad, Tuomas Forsberg, Veronika Slakaityte (Author), Leighton Pugh (Narrator)

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The Silver Waterfall: How America Won the War in the Pacific at Midway

"Eighty years after the stunning and decisive battle, a revelatory new history of Midway ​The Battle of Midway was, on paper, an improbable victory for the smaller, less experienced American navy and air force, so much so that it was quickly described as "a miracle." Yet fortune favored the Americans at Midway, and the conventional wisdom has it that the Americans' lucky streak continued as the war in the Pacific turned against the Japanese. This new history demonstrates that luck, let alone miracles, had little to do with it.  In The Silver Waterfall, Brendan Simms and Steven McGregor show how the efforts of America's peacetime navy combined with creative innovations made by designers and industrialists were largely responsible for the victory. The Douglas Dauntless Dive Bomber, a uniquely conceived fighting weapon, delivered a brutally accurate attack the Japanese quickly came to dread.  Told through a vivid narrative, Simms and McGregor show how the course of the war in the Pacific was dramatically altered, emphasizing the crucial combination of a culture of innovation, a brilliant contribution from immigrants, and a vital intelligence coup that allowed the navy to orchestrate the devastating attack on the Japanese and dominate the Pacific for good."

Brendan Simms, Steven Mcgregor (Author), David Devries (Narrator)

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Hitler's American Gamble: Pearl Harbor and the German March to Global War

"Brought to you by Penguin. 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. © Brendan Simms, Charlie Laderman 2021 (P) Penguin Audio 2021"

Brendan Simms, Charlie Laderman (Author), Damian Lynch (Narrator)

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Hitler: Only the World Was Enough

"Brought to you by Penguin. 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. 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."

Brendan Simms (Author), Leighton Pugh (Narrator)

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