Hitler's American Gamble: Pearl Harbor and Germany's March to Global War

Hitler's American Gamble: Pearl Harbor and Germany's March to Global War by Brendan Simms and Charlie Laderman

By early December 1941, war had changed much of the world beyond recognition. Nazi Germany occupied most of the European continent, while in Asia, the Second Sino-Japanese War had turned China into a battleground. But these conflicts were not yet inextricably linked -- and the United States remained at peace.

Hitler's American Gamble recounts the five days that upended everything: December 7 to 11, from Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor to Hitler's declaration of war on the United States. Tracing developments in real-time, historians Brendan Simms and Charlie Laderman reveal how America's engagement against Germany was in fact far from inevitable. Instead, the fate of the world hung in the balance -- and it was decided in war rooms, across diplomatic cables, and through the political machinations of the era's most famous and powerful men: Roosevelt, Churchill, Hitler, and Stalin. Only with Hitler's declaration on December 11 was the United States irrevocably roped into war with Germany, after much uncertainty. Simms and Laderman reveal the dramatic days, hours, and minutes in which Hitler made this declaration, a calculated gamble, rather than an inexplicable decision.

Meticulously constructed from deep archival research, Hitler's American Gamble reveals how December 11, not Pearl Harbor, was the real watershed that created a world war and transformed international history.

Brendan Simms is a professor in the history of international relations and fellow at the University of Cambridge. Charlie Laderman is a lecturer in international history in the war studies department at King's College, London.

Basic Books, Hardcover, 1st Edition, 1st Printing, 2021