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Brendan Simms has a bold hypothesis -- that it was Hitler's fixation on the United States and Great Britain, and his fear of German decay and degeneracy that drove his strategic thinking and behavior, and he argues it with exceptional eloquence and force. This fascinating book will force us to rethink the strategy of the Second World War in a way that none other has in more than a generation.-- Eliot Cohen, Robert E. Osgood Professor of Strategic Studies at the School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University A pathbreaking and elegantly written account of Hitler and his foreign policy that is rooted in the existing literature but goes beyond it to make new claims. Simms marshals considerable evidence to show that Hitler was more preoccupied with a worldwide struggle with America and Britain then he was by Jews and Bolshevism. His claims of Aryan racial superiority masked concerns about German inferiority; he hoped to improve the 'racial stock' by positive as well as negative eugenics. Simms rejects revisionist claims that see Hitler's foreign policy as constrained or compelled by German society and institutions. A must read for anyone interested in the Third Reich and the long shadow it cast over the 20th century.-- Richard Ned Lebow, professor of War Studies, King's College London After more than 100,000 publications on the evil of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi responsibility for Second World War, it is difficult to offer much new. But Brendan Simms has written a provocatively novel interpretation of the ascendance of Hitler, and why he prompted and lost a global war: his Hitler was always driven more by envy and fear of Anglo-American capitalists than fright of the Soviet Bolsheviks-and more from worries about the comparative inferiority of the German Volk than from arrogance about its purported superiority. Enthralling and enlightening revisionist history at its best.-- Victor Davis Hanson, author of The Second World Wars Combining intellectual verve with gravity, this analytical biography's tightly integrated arguments are based on prodigious research and original conceptualizations. Often gripping, the book's fresh thinking concerning Hitler's anxieties about Anglo-America and the qualities of Germany's population directs readers to reconsider established perceptions about his intentions, motivations, and behavior.-- Ira Katznelson, author of Fear Itself: The New Deal and the Origins of Our Time Brendan Simms has a bold hypothesis...This fascinating book will force us to rethink the strategy of the Second World War in a way that none other has in more than a generation. -- Eliot Cohen, Robert E. Osgood Professor of Strategic Studies at the School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University

Brendan Simms has a bold hypothesis...This fascinating book will force us to rethink the strategy of the Second World War in a way that none other has in more than a generation. -- Eliot Cohen, Robert E. Osgood Professor of Strategic Studies at the School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University

A pathbreaking and elegantly written account of Hitler and his foreign policy that is rooted in the existing literature but goes beyond it to make new claims. Simms marshals considerable evidence to show that Hitler was more preoccupied with a worldwide struggle with America and Britain then he was by Jews and Bolshevism. His claims of Aryan racial superiority masked concerns about German inferiority; he hoped to improve the 'racial stock' by positive as well as negative eugenics. Simms rejects revisionist claims that see Hitler's foreign policy as constrained or compelled by German society and institutions. A must read for anyone interested in the Third Reich and the long shadow it cast over the 20th century.-- Richard Ned Lebow, professor of War Studies, King's College London Brendan Simms has a bold hypothesis -- that it was Hitler's fixation on the United States and Great Britain, and his fear of German decay and degeneracy that drove his strategic thinking and behavior, and he argues it with exceptional eloquence and force. This fascinating book will force us to rethink the strategy of the Second World War in a way that none other has in more than a generation.-- Eliot Cohen, Robert E. Osgood Professor of Strategic Studies at the School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University After more than 100,000 publications on the evil of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi responsibility for Second World War, it is difficult to offer much new. But Brendan Simms has written a provocatively novel interpretation of the ascendance of Hitler, and why he prompted and lost a global war: his Hitler was always driven more by envy and fear of Anglo-American capitalists than fright of the Soviet Bolsheviks-and more from worries about the comparative inferiority of the German Volk than from arrogance about its purported superiority. Enthralling and enlightening revisionist history at its best.-- Victor Davis Hanson, author of The Second World Wars Combining intellectual verve with gravity, this analytical biography's tightly integrated arguments are based on prodigious research and original conceptualizations. Often gripping, the book's fresh thinking concerning Hitler's anxieties about Anglo-America and the qualities of Germany's population directs readers to reconsider established perceptions about his intentions, motivations, and behavior.-- Ira Katznelson, author of Fear Itself: The New Deal and the Origins of Our Time Brendan Simms has a bold hypothesis...This fascinating book will force us to rethink the strategy of the Second World War in a way that none other has in more than a generation. -- Eliot Cohen, Robert E. Osgood Professor of Strategic Studies at the School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University

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Brendan Simms is a professor in the History of International Relations and fellow at Peterhouse College, Cambridge. He is the author of eight previous books, including The Longest Afternoon: The 400 Men Who Decided the Battle of Waterloo and Europe: The Struggle for Supremacy, from 1453 to the Present, shortlisted for the Lionel Gelber Prize. He lives in Cambridge, England. Leighton Pugh trained at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art after studying modern languages at Queen's College, Oxford. He has narrated audiobooks for Penguin, HarperCollins, Macmillan, Random House, Hachette, and Quercus. His radio work includes the plays Murder by the Book and Scenes from Provincial Life for BBC Radio 4 and the voice of Heinrich von Kleist in the BBC Radio 3 documentary The Tragical Adventure of Heinrich von Kleist. From 2010-2011 he was in four productions at the National Theatre, including The Habit of Art and A Woman Killed with Kindness.

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