Brendan Peter Simms (born 1967,
Dublin
Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of th ...
)
is a Professor of the
history of international relations
Diplomatic history deals with the history of international relations between states. Diplomatic history can be different from international relations in that the former can concern itself with the foreign policy of one state while the latter deals ...
in the Department of Politics and International Studies at the
University of Cambridge
, mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts.
Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge.
, established =
, other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...
.
Early life
Brendan Simms is the son of Anngret and
David Simms, a professor of mathematics.
[ Historian says Varadkar has breached letter and spirit of the Belfast Agreement](_blank)
irishtimes.com, 19 July 2019 He is also a grand-nephew of
Brian Goold-Verschoyle
Brian Goold-Verschoyle (5 June 1912 – 5 January 1942) was an Irish member of the Communist Party of Great Britain who was recruited by the Soviet NKVD as a courier between its moles and their handlers in London. After being sent as a radio tec ...
, a member of the
Communist Party of Ireland
The Communist Party of Ireland (CPI; ga, Páirtí Cumannach na hÉireann) is an all-Ireland Marxist–Leninist communist party, founded in 1933 and re-founded in 1970. It rarely contests elections and has never had electoral success. The part ...
, who became a Soviet spy and died in a
Soviet gulag in 1942.
Simms was brought up in the
Roman Catholic
Roman or Romans most often refers to:
*Rome, the capital city of Italy
*Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD
*Roman people, the people of ancient Rome
*'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...
faith.
He studied at
Trinity College Dublin
, name_Latin = Collegium Sanctae et Individuae Trinitatis Reginae Elizabethae juxta Dublin
, motto = ''Perpetuis futuris temporibus duraturam'' (Latin)
, motto_lang = la
, motto_English = It will last i ...
, where he was elected a
Scholar
A scholar is a person who pursues academic and intellectual activities, particularly academics who apply their intellectualism into expertise in an area of study. A scholar can also be an academic, who works as a professor, teacher, or researche ...
in 1986,
before completing his doctoral dissertation, ''Anglo-Prussian relations, 1804–1806: The Napoleonic Threat'', at
Peterhouse, Cambridge
Peterhouse is the oldest constituent college of the University of Cambridge in England, founded in 1284 by Hugh de Balsham, Bishop of Ely. Today, Peterhouse has 254 undergraduates, 116 full-time graduate students and 54 fellows. It is quite ...
, under the supervision of
Tim Blanning
Timothy Charles William Blanning (born 21 April 1942) is an English historian who served as Professor of Modern European History at the University of Cambridge from 1992 to 2009.
Career
Timothy Charles William Blanning attended the King's Sch ...
in 1993.
Career
Simms became a Fellow of Peterhouse and now also serves as Professor of the History of European International Relations at the
University of Cambridge
, mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts.
Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge.
, established =
, other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...
, where he lectures and leads seminars, specializing in international history since 1945.
In addition to his academic work, Simms also serves as the president of the
Henry Jackson Society
The Henry Jackson Society (HJS) is a trans-Atlantic foreign policy and national security think tank, based in the United Kingdom. While describing itself as non-partisan, its outlook has been described variously as neoliberal and as neoconser ...
, which advocates the view that supporting and promoting
liberal democracy
Liberal democracy is the combination of a liberal political ideology that operates under an indirect democratic form of government. It is characterized by elections between multiple distinct political parties, a separation of powers into diff ...
and
liberal interventionism should be an integral part of Western foreign policy, and as President of the
Project for Democratic Union, a Munich-based student-organised think tank.
He has advocated that the
Eurozone
The euro area, commonly called eurozone (EZ), is a currency union of 19 member states of the European Union (EU) that have adopted the euro (€) as their primary currency and sole legal tender, and have thus fully implemented EMU policies ...
should create a
United States of Europe
The United States of Europe (USE), the European State, the European Federation and Federal Europe, is the hypothetical scenario of the European integration leading to formation of a sovereign superstate (similar to the United States of Ameri ...
, and also that this should continue the traditions of the
Holy Roman Empire
The Holy Roman Empire was a Polity, political entity in Western Europe, Western, Central Europe, Central, and Southern Europe that developed during the Early Middle Ages and continued until its Dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire, dissolution i ...
, appointing an elected Emperor.
[Brendan Simms]
Charles III — why not make him King-Emperor of Europe?
engelsbergideas.com, 3 October 2022, accessed 5 October 2022
''Europe: The Struggle for Supremacy''
Norman Stone
Norman Stone (8 March 1941 – 19 June 2019) was a British historian and author. He was Professor of European History in the Department of International Relations at Bilkent University, having formerly been a professor at the University of Oxf ...
praised ''Europe: The Struggle for Supremacy'' as "lively and erudite".
[Reviewed: Europe – the Struggle for Supremacy by Brendan Simms, Norman Stone, New Statesman 25 April 2013]
/ref> He also praised the book for the focus on Germany and Simms's knowledge of it though he qualifies it by saying Simms is stronger on the 18th century than the 20th century due to the volume of material to be covered in the latter.[
]Richard J. Evans
Sir Richard John Evans (born 29 September 1947) is a British historian of 19th- and 20th-century Europe with a focus on Germany. He is the author of eighteen books, including his three-volume ''The Third Reich Trilogy'' (2003–2008). Evans was ...
was critical of the book, saying that Simms had overly favoured observations by A. J. P. Taylor
Alan John Percivale Taylor (25 March 1906 – 7 September 1990) was a British historian who specialised in 19th- and 20th-century European diplomacy. Both a journalist and a broadcaster, he became well known to millions through his televis ...
of a Hobbsean view of European history, focusing on periods of strife while neglecting periods of cooperation between European states. Evans described the book as a "one-sided picture", adding that even Simms has to acknowledge that there were periods of cooperation.[
]Noel Malcolm
Sir Noel Robert Malcolm, (born 26 December 1956) is an English political journalist, historian and academic. A King's Scholar at Eton College, Malcolm read history at Peterhouse, Cambridge, and received his doctorate in history from Trinity Col ...
praised Simms as "a historian of unusual range and ability", saying that "knowing what he wants to say is one of Simms’s strengths".[Europe by Brendan Simms: review, Noel Malcolm, The Telegraph, 15 April 2013]
/ref> On the whole Malcolm praised the book, though regarding Simms' emphasis on the primacy of foreign policy in European affairs, Malcolm did wonder if there may be counterexamples, such as those where the foreign/domestic distinction is less clear.[
]
''Hitler: Only the World Was Enough''
British historian Richard J. Evans
Sir Richard John Evans (born 29 September 1947) is a British historian of 19th- and 20th-century Europe with a focus on Germany. He is the author of eighteen books, including his three-volume ''The Third Reich Trilogy'' (2003–2008). Evans was ...
was also critical of ''Hitler: Only the World Was Enough'', arguing that Simms's claim of Hitler embracing socialism does not stand up to examination. Simms cited violence of Nazi stormtroopers against conservatives, but Evans noted that socialists and communists were the overwhelming majority of the 200,000 Germans thrown into concentration camps during Hitler's first year in power.[ Simms claimed that Hitler's rhetoric was more anti-capitalist than anti-communist, but Evans shows that the anti-communist rhetoric dominated the political portion of Hitler's autobiographical manifesto '']Mein Kampf
(; ''My Struggle'' or ''My Battle'') is a 1925 autobiographical manifesto by Nazi Party leader Adolf Hitler. The work describes the process by which Hitler became antisemitic and outlines his political ideology and future plans for Germ ...
''.[ Simms claims that Hitler had managed "to nationalise German industrialists by making them instruments of his political will" which Evans disputes – the reason Thyssen and ]Krupp
The Krupp family (see pronunciation), a prominent 400-year-old German dynasty from Essen, is notable for its production of steel, artillery, ammunition and other armaments. The family business, known as Friedrich Krupp AG (Friedrich Krup ...
supported him was that Hitler's rearmament policies were profitable for them.[
Simms claimed that the '']Kristallnacht
() or the Night of Broken Glass, also called the November pogrom(s) (german: Novemberpogrome, ), was a pogrom against Jews carried out by the Nazi Party's (SA) paramilitary and (SS) paramilitary forces along with some participation from ...
'' was caused by "Roosevelt’s hostility to Hitler and his defence of the Jews", that Operation Barbarossa
Operation Barbarossa (german: link=no, Unternehmen Barbarossa; ) was the invasion of the Soviet Union by Nazi Germany and many of its Axis allies, starting on Sunday, 22 June 1941, during the Second World War. The operation, code-named after ...
"was to be a campaign of conquest and annihilation, for reasons more to do with Anglo-America than the Soviet Union itself" and that The Holocaust
The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; a ...
was "primarily driven … by his fear of Britain and the United States".[ Evans comments "All this is nonsense, and indeed, Simms is forced to contradict himself by the sheer weight of the evidence against his thesis."][ As an example of where Simms is forced to contradict himself Evans points to Operation Barbarossa, which Simms concedes to have been "part of a much broader ideological war against Bolshevism".][ Evans also points out that Hitler's genocidal anti-Semitism was based on a paranoid view that Jews were inherently disposed to subversion and conspiracy.][
Evans summarizes the book with "In the end, Simms hasn’t written a biography in any meaningful sense of the word; he has written a tract that instrumentalises the past for present-day political purposes. As such, his book can be safely ignored by serious students of the Nazi era".][
]
Works
*''The Struggle for Mastery in Germany, 1779–1850'' (Palgrave MacMillan, 1998)
*''Unfinest Hour: Britain and the Destruction of Bosnia'' (Penguin, 2001)
*''Three Victories and a Defeat: The Rise and Fall of the First British Empire, 1714–1783'' (Penguin, 2007)
*''Europe: The Struggle for Supremacy, 1453 to the Present'' (Allen Lane, 2013)
* ''The Longest Afternoon, The Four Hundred Men who Decided the Battle of Waterloo'' (Allen Lane, 2014)
* ''Britain's Europe: A Thousand Years of Conflict and Cooperation'' (Penguin, 2017)
* ''Donald Trump: The Making of a Worldview'' (I.B. Tauris & Co. Ltd., 2017)
* ''Hitler: A Global Biography'' (Basic Books, 2019)
See also
*European History
The history of Europe is traditionally divided into four time periods: prehistoric Europe (prior to about 800 BC), classical antiquity (800 BC to AD 500), the Middle Ages (AD 500 to AD 1500), and the modern era (since AD 1500).
The first early ...
*Bosnian War
The Bosnian War ( sh, Rat u Bosni i Hercegovini / Рат у Босни и Херцеговини) was an international armed conflict that took place in Bosnia and Herzegovina between 1992 and 1995. The war is commonly seen as having started ...
*British Empire
The British Empire was composed of the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates, and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It began with the overseas possessions and trading posts esta ...
*T. C. W. Blanning
Timothy Charles William Blanning (born 21 April 1942) is an English historian who served as Professor of Modern European History at the University of Cambridge from 1992 to 2009.
Career
Timothy Charles William Blanning attended the King's Sch ...
References
External links
Biography
Brady Lecture, London 2018
{{DEFAULTSORT:Simms, Brendan
Living people
Alumni of Peterhouse, Cambridge
Fellows of Peterhouse, Cambridge
Fellows of the Royal Historical Society
20th-century Irish historians
21st-century Irish historians
Irish writers
Historians of the Napoleonic Wars
Members of the University of Cambridge faculty of history
Scholars of Trinity College Dublin
Place of birth missing (living people)
1967 births