Brendan Simms – författare

Östersjön är mer än bara ett innanhav – det är en historisk geopolitisk skådeplats. Från vikingatidens sjöfart till dagens Natodominerade område har detta bräckta hav varit en livsnerv för folk och länder i norra Europa. Östersjön har fungerat som en knutpunkt för ekonomiska och politiska relationer genom Hansans dominans under medeltiden, stormaktstidens strider mellan Sverige, Polen-Litauen och Ryssland, samt de dramatiska skiften som följde i spåren av Napoleonkrigen, de båda världskrigen och kalla kriget. 

Östersjön har även visat sig vara en plats för samarbete. Efter Sovjetunionens fall har regionen präglats av integration och tillväxt – en utveckling som nu utmanas av nya geopolitiska spänningar. Hur kan regionen komma att påverkas av energiflöden, klimatförändringar och militärstrategier? 

I denna omfattande antologi samlas bidrag av ledande forskare inom bland annat historia, statsvetenskap och internationella relationer för att kartlägga de drivande krafter som format Östersjöregionen från 1200-talet fram till i dag. 

Boken finns även i engelsk utgåva, The Baltic Sea - A Geopolitical History.

Östersjön är mer än bara ett innanhav det är en historisk geopolitisk skådeplats. Från vikingatidens sjöfart till ett Nato-dominerat område har detta bräckta innanhav varit en livsnerv för folk och länder i norra Europa. Östersjön har fungerat som en knutpunkt för ekonomiska och politiska relationer: Hansans dominans under medeltiden, stormaktstidens strider mellan Sverige, Polen-Litauen och Ryssland, samt de dramatiska skiften som följde i spåren av Napoleonkrigen, de båda världskrigen och kalla kriget.

Men Östersjön är också en plats för samarbete. Efter Sovjetunionens fall har regionen präglats av integration och tillväxt en utveckling som nu utmanas av nya geopolitiska spänningar. Hur påverkas framtiden av energiflöden, klimatförändringar och militärstrategier?

I denna omfattande antologi samlas bidrag av ledande forskare inom bland annat historia, statsvetenskap och internationella relationer för att kartlägga de drivande krafter som format Östersjöregionen från 1200-talet fram till i dag.

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.

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