Hitler's American Gamble

Pearl Harbor and the German March to Global War

Brendan Simms, Charlie Laderman

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Allen Lane
02 November 2021

History; European history; History of the Americas; 20th century history: c 1900 to c 2000; Second World War
English

A thrilling account of Pearl Harbor and the five history-making days that followed

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.

By: Brendan Simms, Charlie Laderman
Imprint: Allen Lane
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 240mm, Width: 162mm, Spine: 36mm
Weight: 731g
ISBN: 9780241423509
ISBN 10: 0241423503
Pages: 304
Publication Date: 02 November 2021
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

Brendan Simms is Professor of the History of International Relations at the University of Cambridge. His major books include Unfinest Hour- Britain and the Destruction of Bosnia (shortlisted for the Samuel Johnson Prize), Europe- The Struggle for Supremacy, 1453 to the Present, and Hitler- Only the World Was Enough. Charlie Laderman is a Lecturer in International History at King's College London. He is the author of Sharing the Burden- The Armenian Question, Humanitarian Intervention and Anglo-American Visions of Global Order and (with Brendan Simms) Donald Trump- the Making of a Worldview.

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

A rare achievement: a microhistory that's global in scope. Filled with fresh insights, excitingly written, and meticulously documented, Hitler's American Gamble is sure to become an instant classic. -- John Lewis Gaddis Brendan Simms and Charlie Laderman show how Hitler's mad decision to declare war on the United States on December 11, 1941 proved suicidal for the Axis, ensured a global catastrophe, and would radically redefine how World War II would end. And yet was Hitler really as unhinged and reckless as it has seemed? ... Hitler's American Gamble is revisionist, but in the best sense of sound research, rare originality, singular analysis, and riveting prose. -- Victor Davis Hanson