Editing Brendan Simms

{{Short description|Academic}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2021}}
'''Brendan Peter Simms''' (born 1967, [[Dublin]])<ref name="Who's Who">{{Who's Who | title=SIMMS, Prof. Brendan Peter | id = U278394 | volume = 2022 | edition = online}}</ref> is a Professor of the [[history of international relations]] in the Department of Politics and International Studies at the [[University of Cambridge]].

==Early life==
Brendan Simms is the son of Anngret and [[David J. Simms|David Simms]], a professor of mathematics.<ref name="IT">[https://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/historian-says-varadkar-has-breached-letter-and-spirit-of-the-belfast-agreement-1.3961740  Historian says Varadkar has breached letter and spirit of the Belfast Agreement], irishtimes.com, 19 July 2019</ref> He is also a grand-nephew of [[Brian Goold-Verschoyle]], a member of the [[Communist Party of Ireland]], who became a Soviet spy and died in a [[Gulag|Soviet gulag]] in 1942.<ref name="IT"/>

Simms was brought up in the [[Catholic Church|Roman Catholic]] faith.<ref name="IT"/> He studied at [[Trinity College Dublin]], where he was elected a [[List of Scholars of Trinity College Dublin|Scholar]] in 1986,<ref name=scholars>{{cite web|url=http://www.tcdlife.ie/scholars/scholar/about-list.php|title=List of Scholars|work=TCD Life|accessdate=20 December 2015}}</ref> before completing his doctoral dissertation, ''Anglo-Prussian relations, 1804–1806: The Napoleonic Threat'', at [[Peterhouse, Cambridge]], under the supervision of [[Tim Blanning]] in 1993.<ref name="Who's Who"/> 

==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]], where he lectures and leads seminars, specializing in international history since 1945.<ref> [http://www.polis.cam.ac.uk/Staff/professor-brendan-simms Brendan Simms profile], Department of Politics and International Studies, Cambridge University</ref>

In addition to his academic work, Simms also serves as the president<ref>{{Cite web|url = http://henryjacksonsociety.org/people/professional-staff/|title = Professional Staff|accessdate = 16 November 2014|publisher = Henry Jackson Society}}</ref> of the [[Henry Jackson Society]], which advocates the view that supporting and promoting [[liberal democracy]] and [[liberal interventionism]] should be an integral part of Western foreign policy,<ref>{{Cite web|url = http://henryjacksonsociety.org/about-the-society/statement-of-principles/|title = Statement of Principles|accessdate = 16 November 2014|publisher = Henry Jackson Society}}</ref> and as President of the [[Project for Democratic Union]], a Munich-based student-organised think tank.<ref>[https://www.theguardian.com/profile/brendan-simms Brendan Simms ], theguardian.com</ref>

He has advocated that the [[Eurozone]] should create a [[European Federation|United States of Europe]],<ref>{{Cite news|title=We eurozoners must create a United State of Europe|url=https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/apr/23/united-state-of-europe-anglo-american-union|last=Simms|first=Brendan|date=23 April 2013|access-date=23 April 2020|newspaper=[[The Guardian]]}}</ref> and also that this should continue the traditions of the [[Holy Roman Empire]], appointing an elected Emperor.<ref>Brendan Simms, [https://engelsbergideas.com/notebook/charles-iii-why-not-make-him-king-emperor-of-europe/ Charles III — why not make him King-Emperor of Europe?], engelsbergideas.com, 3 October 2022, accessed 5 October 2022</ref>

==''Europe: The Struggle for Supremacy''==
[[Norman Stone]] praised ''Europe: The Struggle for Supremacy'' as "lively and erudite".<ref name=ns-reviewed-europe-struggle-supremacy-brendan-simms>[http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2013/04/reviewed-europe-struggle-supremacy-brendan-simms 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.<ref name=ns-reviewed-europe-struggle-supremacy-brendan-simms/>

[[Richard J. Evans]] was critical of the book, saying that Simms had overly favoured observations by [[A. J. P. Taylor]] of a [[Hobbesian]] view of European history, focusing on periods of strife while neglecting periods of cooperation between European states.<ref name=guardian-europe-the-struggle-for-supremacy-review>{{Cite news|title=Europe: The Struggle for Supremacy by Brendan Simms – review|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/may/23/europe-struggle-supremacy-simms-review|last=Evans|first=Richard|date=23 May 2013|access-date=23 April 2020|newspaper=[[The Guardian]]}}</ref> Evans described the book as a "one-sided picture", adding that even Simms has to acknowledge that there were periods of cooperation.<ref name=guardian-europe-the-struggle-for-supremacy-review/>

[[Noel Malcolm]] praised Simms as "a historian of unusual range and ability", saying that "knowing what he wants to say is one of Simms’s strengths".<ref name=teletraph-Europe-by-Brendan-Simms-review>[https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/non_fictionreviews/9986890/Europe-by-Brendan-Simms-review.html 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.<ref name=teletraph-Europe-by-Brendan-Simms-review/>

==''Hitler: Only the World Was Enough''==
British historian [[Richard J. Evans]] was critical of ''Hitler: Only the World Was Enough'', arguing that the book makes a number of false claims, such as the claim that Hitler embraced socialism, and concluding that 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."<ref name=guardian-hitler-by-brendan-simms-and-hitler-by-peter-longerich-problematic-portraits>{{Cite news|title=Hitler by Brendan Simms and Hitler by Peter Longerich review – problematic portraits|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/sep/27/hitler-only-the-world-was-enough-and-hitler-a-life-review|last=Evans|first=Richard|date=27 September 2019|access-date=23 April 2020|newspaper=[[The Guardian]]}}</ref>

British historian [[Richard Overy]] described ''Hitler: Only the World Was Enough'' as a "thoroughly thought-provoking and stimulating biography which all historians of the Third Reich will have to take seriously," but also criticized the book for downplaying Hitler's imperial ambitions in Eastern Europe and for giving Hitler too much credit for creating outcomes.<ref>{{Cite news|title=''Hitler: Only the World Was Enough'': its originality and intelligence command attention|url=https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/hitler-only-the-world-was-enough-its-originality-and-intelligence-command-attention-1.4007528|last=Overy|first=Richard|date=8 September 2019|access-date=2 January 2024|newspaper=[[The Irish Times]]}}</ref>

== Bibliography ==
{{Incomplete list |date=August 2023}}{{bots|deny=Citation bot}}

=== Books ===
*''The Struggle for Mastery in Germany, 1779–1850'' (Palgrave MacMillan, 1998)
*''Unfinest Hour: Britain and the Destruction of Bosnia'' (Penguin, 2001)
*''[https://archive.org/details/threevictoriesan0000simm 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)
* {{cite book <!--|author=Simms, Brendan |author-mask=1--> |title=The Longest Afternoon: The Four Hundred Men Who Decided the Battle of Waterloo |location= |publisher=Allen Lane |date=2014 <!--|isbn=-->}}
* ''Britain's Europe: A Thousand Years of Conflict and Cooperation'' (Penguin, 2017)
* ''[https://archive.org/details/donaldtrumpmakin0000lade Donald Trump: The Making of a Worldview]'' (I.B. Tauris & Co. Ltd., 2017)
* ''Hitler: A Global Biography'' (Basic Books, 2019) {{ISBN|978-0465022373}}
* ''Hitler's American Gamble: Pearl Harbor and the German March to Global War'' (Penguin, 2021) {{ISBN|978-0241423509}}
* (with Steven McGregor and David DeVries) ''The Silver Waterfall: How America Won the War in the Pacific at Midway'' (Hachette, 2022) {{ISBN|978-1541701373}}

===Critical studies and reviews of Simms' work===
;''The longest afternoon''
* {{cite journal |author=Heffer, Simon |author-link=Simon Heffer |date=21 November 2014 |title=The unfinished battles of Waterloo |journal=New Statesman |volume=143 |issue=5237 |pages=44–45}}

==See also==
*[[European History]]
*[[Bosnian War]]
*[[British Empire]]
*[[T. C. W. Blanning]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20090907012548/http://www.polis.cam.ac.uk/contacts/staff/simms-brendan.html Biography]
*[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=38zTjKsoYS4 Brady Lecture, London 2018]

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Simms, Brendan}}
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:Alumni of Peterhouse, Cambridge]]
[[Category:Fellows of Peterhouse, Cambridge]]
[[Category:Fellows of the Royal Historical Society]]
[[Category:20th-century Irish historians]]
[[Category:21st-century Irish historians]]
[[Category:Historians of the Napoleonic Wars]]
[[Category:Members of the University of Cambridge faculty of history]]
[[Category:Scholars of Trinity College Dublin]]
[[Category:Place of birth missing (living people)]]
[[Category:1967 births]]