James Ellman holds a bachelor's degree in history and economics from Tufts University and an MBA from Harvard. He lives near San Francisco, California.
Description
This startlingly original account places one of the key episodes of World War II in an entirely new light. Deeply researched and briskly written, it contradicts the standard view that Hitler's invasion of the Soviet Union was an act of military madness. Ellman's work reshapes our understanding of history--and shows how much remains to be learned about the 20th century's great cataclysm. -- Stephen Kinzer, author of The True Flag and Poisoner in Chief The author challenges conventional wisdom with a bold, fresh interpretation of one of the watershed events of the twentieth century: Operation Barbarossa, Adolf Hitler's attack on the Soviet Union in June 1941. In a sweeping overview of events--based in part on official archival sources and recollections of key participants, Ellman argues that, far from being a catastrophic mistake, Hitler's decision to attack Russia was a 'logical gamble . . . that came extremely close to success.' The fast-paced narrative will give laypersons and historians alike much to contemplate. -- Craig Luther, author of The First Day on the Eastern Front Both the Russian and Western worlds are built on a degree of propaganda rooted in their victory over Nazi Germany. Deconstructing that propaganda is neither easy nor comfortable as it challenges the very story we tell ourselves about ourselves. James Ellman does precisely that in his new book, Hitler's Great Gamble, in which he makes the deeply uncomfortable assertion that Hitler's assault upon the Soviet Union did not fail due to numbers or weather or ideology, but instead, diplomacy. If Nazi Germany had simply nudged Japan and Finland a bit more, the USSR would have fallen and the world would've ended up much different from what we know. This is far from a historical footnote or an item limited to academic quibble. With the global order collapsing, a full and accurate reading of European history becomes critical. Ellman's work suggests we don't know our past as well as we think we do, and that triggers some seriously heavy thinking about the immediate future. -- Peter Zeihan, author of The Absent Superpower