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    The Imperial Cruise: A Secret History of Empire and War
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    The Imperial Cruise: A Secret History of Empire and War
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    The Imperial Cruise: A Secret History of Empire and War
    Audiobook9 hours

    The Imperial Cruise: A Secret History of Empire and War

    Written by James Bradley

    Narrated by Richard Poe

    4/5

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    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    In 1905 President Teddy Roosevelt dispatched Secretary of War William Taft, his gun-toting daughter Alice and a gaggle of congressmen on a mission to Japan, the Philippines, China, and Korea. There, they would quietly forge a series of agreements that divided up Asia. At the time, Roosevelt was bully-confident about America's future on the continent. But these secret pacts lit the fuse that would-decades later-result in a number of devastating wars: WWII, the Korean War, the communist revolution in China.
    One hundred years later, James Bradley retraces that epic voyage and discovers the remarkable truth about America's vast imperial past-and its world-shaking consequences. Full of fascinating characters and brilliantly told, THE IMPERIAL CRUISE will forever reshape the way we understand U.S. history
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHachette Audio
    Release dateNov 24, 2009
    ISBN9781600243967
    Unavailable
    The Imperial Cruise: A Secret History of Empire and War
    Author

    James Bradley

    James Bradley is a writer and critic. His books include the novels Wrack, The Deep Field, The Resurrectionist, Clade, and Ghost Species; a book of poetry, Paper Nautilus; and The Penguin Book of the Ocean. Alongside his books, James has an established career as an essayist and reviewer, whose work has appeared in publications including The Guardian, The Monthly, Sydney Review of Books, Times Literary Supplement, Meanjin, and Griffith Review. His fiction has won or been shortlisted for a wide range of Australian and international literary awards, and his nonfiction has been shortlisted twice for the Bragg Prize for Science Writing and nominated for a Walkley Award. In 2012, he won the Pascall Award for Australia’s Critic of the Year. He is currently an Honorary Associate at the Sydney Environment Centre at the University of Sydney.

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    Reviews for The Imperial Cruise

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    • 5/5
      The year is 1905. President Teddy Roosevelt sends his daughter (the era's equivalent of Princess Di) on a cruise to Japan, China, and the Philippines, along with his Secretary of State. The roots of the Pacific war theatre of WWII and the torture of waterboarding were laid at that time.
    • 5/5
      I went into this book knowing that America's Imperialist era (mostly the presidencies of Grover Cleveland, William McKinley, Theodore Roosevelt, and William Howard Taft) was not our finest hour in terms of foreign policy. We fought and won the Spanish American War, but that just dovetailed into the atrocity-laden Philippine-American War. I knew some about Taft's atrocious behavior as governor of the Philippines, and I did know that it during this time we awoke a previously-isolationist Japan. James Bradley tells how this fits in with other significant events in history, culminating with Japan instigating our involvement in WWII. The Imperial Cruise is he name for a publicity junket made by then Secretary of War Taft and President Theodore Roosevelt's daughter, Alice. While Alice was somewhat of a celebrity, Taft laid an egg by telling Filipino leaders that their country was "not ready for independence, will not be in the next generation, maybe not two, maybe not for 100 years." This, Bradley contends, was not merely a PR faux pas, but indicative of the racist policy pushed by Roosevelt and others. This policy declares "non-Aryan" races inferior and that they must be subjugated to our rule for their own benefit. This was apparent in our treatment of Native Americans during Manifest Destiny; and just so with the expansionist drive to "follow the sun."During this period, Japan became our anointed local stooge. Even as Roosevelt was basking in the glow of a Nobel Peace Prize, he was cutting a secret deal with Japan to give them control of Korea. Roosevelt considered the Slavic Russians an inferior breed of white man, and meanwhile Japan was stoked to prove themselves worthy of the notion that they were the "Aryan's of the east." What followed was the Russo-Japanese War, which indeed accomplished several of Roosevelt's diplomatic goals. In my own visits to the Philippines, I am often struck by the friendliness of the people there. However, that is not true throughout the entire country, and resentment still runs high in such towns as Zamboanga (where we still have forces stationed). In 1895, during the brief period between the end of the Spanish-American War (where the Battle of Manila was fought without casualties to Spain or the US by a prior agreement) and the time the US made it clear they were not there to liberate the country, an independent government arose attempting to base their own ideals on that of the US Constitution. There is still some of that same reverence toward the US even today, but., like Cuba and, to a lesser degree Mexico, it was a botched diplomatic opportunity that haunts us to this day. It is somewhat difficult to remain objective more than a century later where such behavior results in outrage, and Bradley somewhat struggles with this in underlying references to the actions that two generations later shocked and horrified the world under the Nazi banner. What he does accomplish, however, is stripping some of the greatness off the Roosevelt regime. History remembers him as one of our greatest leaders...but it all seems to be a smoke-and-mirrors PR campaign. In modern times, Roosevelt seems like the kind of guy we'd send an invasion force to depose, not one to immortalize on the side of a mountain.
    • 5/5
      This book puts a decidedly different spin on the popular image of President Theodore Roosevelt. In 1905 Roosevelt sent a delegation consisting of William Howard Taft, a gaggle of congressmen and government officials, as well as Roosevelt's daughter, Alice on a tour of important Pacific countries. These included Japan, China, Korea, the Philippines, and a stop over in the Hawaiian Islands. Unbeknownst to everyone including the U. S. Congress, Theodore Roosevelt had already made clandestine agreements with Japanese representatives that would have wide ranging effects determining the future solidification of Japan as a major power far beyond even Roosevelt's ability to control. He had hoped to use Japan to help him consolidate the United States influence in the Pacific, while keeping the Japanese as a lackey to the U. S. Instead he unleashed a divine wind that would drive the nations closer to a world wide conflict. If you want to have your eyes opened to the failures of Roosevelt's policies in the Pacific you need to read this version of history. It will make you shake your head and wonder at the arrogance and ignorance of one of our cherished leaders. The fact that the author both enlightens us and makes us think is the mark of an excellent book.
    • 4/5
      If you wanted to know a bit more about the dark side of U.S. imperialism and Teddy Roosevelt's role in it, read this book. During the late 19th century America demonstrated in many parts of the world that our foreign policy did not match the "melting pot" image of America. Cuba, Philippines, Korea, Russia, China, and Japan are given the "big stick" to varying degrees. Bradley speculates how Roosevelt's secret deals during the turn of the century may have led to the cataclysmic results of WWII. The book is an easy read, and Bradley is definitely disgusted with the era of US policy and shows it in his writing. This is a must read for a broader understanding of US foreign policy, then, and perhaps more importantly, now.
    • 5/5
      This is a great book that explains real history left out of our history books. It explains a lot about Americans, their desire to follow the Sun.... and how the efforts of Teddy Roosevelt in his quest to acquire country's like the Philippines, Japan, Korea. It gives us a glimpse into the reasons Japan attacked us in 1941, leading to the Pacific War. This book will shake your perception of American History, guraanteed!
    • 4/5
      A provocative and in many ways a sobering book. Mr Bradley illuminates many key and sometimes forgotten foreign policy actions in the early part of the century under President Teddy Roosevelt. He makes a case for these actions being the prime movers in setting the conditions that will lead to World War II in the Pacific. The book also describes a United States more publicly tolerant of imperialistic and racist points of view then today. This was the public world view for many countries in the world at that time. I found the reading of these times both fascinating and disturbing. The analysis of events in the book shows that the results of initiatives cannot always be understood in such a complex realm as international relations. Faulty assumptions and unexpected events can lead to unsatisfactory states. While I don't believe the United States was completely responsible for setting up the conditions for a war with Japan, I believe their early twentieth century actions may have contributed greatly. The "not always remembered" accounts of United States mistreatments of their colonials and other Asia peoples serves to remind us that we haven't always acted with the high ideals we like to believe we always hold our county to. But a country can learn from their history and perhaps there are lessons from this work that can be applied to todays world. For anybody interested in world history from a different point of view I recommend this work.
    • 4/5
      "Empire," Orwell reminds us in his 1942 essay on Kipling, "is primarily a money-making affair. ... The map is painted red," he notes, "chiefly so the coolie can be exploited." For "coolie" substitute "Chinese," "Hawaiian," or "Filipino," and you have a pretty fair statement of one of James Bradley's main arguments in "The Imperial Cruise" -- that it was cupidity more than anything else that led to U.S. assertion of power in the Pacific. This is an important argument -- one of several such timely bits of "revisionism" in a flawed but still very worthwhile book. Many reviewers have criticized Bradley for factual misstatements or misinterpretations, poor citations, or simply an overly polemical tone. But I think it's important to note, too, the ire generated simply by his willingness to throw mud on icons of our civic religion like Theodore Roosevelt and the selfless benevolence of American soldiers and Marines, or even to state the self-evident fact that the U.S. became at the time covered in this book, and remains to this day, an imperial power. (Note how many reviewers flay Bradley for "giving in to political correctness," a by-now-largely-meaningless term that signifies little more than "something Sean Hannity wouldn't like.) Despite the flaws, though, there is quite a bit of value in what I take to be Bradley's three key points. The first of these is the fact of the commercially-driven power politics of America's Pacific expansionism -- shaped by the racial theories of the time and promoted as part of a civilizing mission ("Initiating what would become a recurring Yankee tradition," Bradley writes, "McKinley contended that the U.S. military could invade other countries when Americans decided that their people needed help. McKinley conjured up the fantasy that when a U.S. soldier pointed a gun at a foreign Other, he was there to help" [p. 79]). The second is that U.S. encouragement of Japanese expansionism, as the Asian nation most thoroughly in line with "the principles and methods of Western civilization" (p. 217, quoting TR), led directly to World War Two. And the third is that the Theodore Roosevelt we remember and lionize today is largely a myth of TR's own creation. Though not unusual among talented politicians -- Winston Churchill created his own myth too, as John Ramsden showed in Man of the Century: Winston Churchill and His Legend Since 1945 -- seeing through the propaganda is essential for a clear understanding of the person and his impact. Flawed as "The Imperial Cruise" may be, by reminding us of these important facts, James Bradley has written a book that deserves to be read and recognized as a useful work of "revisionist" history.
    • 2/5
      In the summer of 1905, the perilous waters of the Pacific played host to a treacherous political ploy that served the conceited interests of a gluttonous nation. Theodore Roosevelt, the conductor of this covert operation and one of the most revered American presidents of all time, had his eyes set on exploiting the lucrative lands of Asia. He dispatches a slew of political figures on the SS Manchuria to represent American interest in the Pacific. Their diplomatic voyage will take them to Hawaii, the Philippines, Korea, and Japan. Among the crew are several notable figures such as Vice President Taft and Alice Roosevelt, the first daughter. These passengers in particular had a certain strategical significance to the overall end that Teddy was trying to reach. This historical odyssey, termed “The Imperial Cruise”, is the linchpin of James Bradley’s book, and takes place during a pivotal point in history. The Russo-Japanese War had reached its climax, Meiji Reformation had caused Japan’s military complex to peak, and China was still recovering from the Opium wars. With the Russians reeling and the Chinese in tumult, the Japanese were poised to be the dominant power of the Pacific. As Mr. Bradley points out in his book, American diplomats encouraged Japanese aggression by propagating and advocating adherence to a philosophy known as the Monroe Doctrine. At this point, having already adopted many other western practices, they openly embraced this stance, and later on it would become the catalyst for Japanese Imperialism. Henceforth, American domestic and foreign policies become the major focal points of the book, and the imperial cruise itself takes a backseat. The author consistently touches on Aryan ideals and their strong influence in the late 19th century. He uses this thesis to explain the motivation behind these policies and the political figures that backed them, namely Teddy Roosevelt and his associates. Several chapters are devoted to depicting America’s duplicity in Cuba and the Philippines. In a very convoluted manner, James Bradley portrays Uncle Sam as a major supporter of these countries while they are fighting for their independence. He succeeds in showing the arrogant march of the U.S into the middle of these conflicts under the promise of democracy and freedom. However, the end result is simply a new tyranny. Mentions are also made of racially motivated atrocities that transpired during America’s oppressive imposition. After procuring the Philippines, America realizes the land is more trouble than it is worth. As they continue to “follow the sun” their westward expansion reaches its apex in Japan. Hoping to crack open the door to Asia, Commodore Matthew Perry is sent to Japan and puts an end to Sakoku at gun point. This event is the end of peaceful prosperity for Japan. They are forced to quickly conform to Western ways, and adapt with excellence. They receive the admiration of America for converting with ease. Teddy in particular develops an affinity for these “Honorary Aryans”, and his diplomacy centers on catering to them as alluded to in the book. Urging them to become the dominate power in the Pacific, he inconspicuously hands them Korea on a silver platter. What Teddy fails to deliver on is an indemnity that he promised to Japan during the Treaty of Portsmouth. His effort during these negotiations wins him the Noble Peace Prize, but Japan’s victory feels more like a defeat as they now have to exhaust their economy even further after the war. Bradley openly states that this is the seed of Japan’s animosity towards the U.S., and one of the root causes of the attack on Pearl Harbor. Truthfully, the imperial cruise is a just lure that is left relatively undeveloped. The book is basically a full on assault aimed at Theodore Roosevelt and his supporting cast. The author rightfully scrutinizes the bigotry and blatant ethnocentric remarks of Teddy and his peers, but he fails to divulge any enlightening information. Major points are broken up throughout the book completely destroying its impetus. Apropos, this chaotic conglomeration is more stifling than it is revealing. The reader is bombarded with a barrage of unorganized information that is extremely captivating at several points but these very broad subjects are covered in a scant amount of space. Because of this the reader needs to be diligent enough to research the pieces of evidence that Bradley presents. His perspective is raw, refreshing, and probably the most enjoyable part of the book as it is a noticeable departure from his earlier works, but as the pages progress his tonality becomes increasingly insolent instead of informative. He frequently uses racial slurs to bring home his points as if the fact he is writing a book mitigates their magnitude. The entire work peters from poignant to pretentious, delivering a real lackluster punch. The author does himself no justice and comes off like an indignant angst filled child, shocked at the skeletons he has found in the Government's closet, compelling him to write this horrendous book. Overall, it’s a good jump start into the history of American political affairs during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, but you’re better off “following the sun” outside where you can find something better to do with your time.
    • 4/5
      Mr. Bradley is most famous, and deservedly so, for 'Flags of our Fathers'. His follow-up, 'Flyboys' is also a worthy history, but Imperial Cruise is the result of research into why the Asian world and specifically the Japanese Empire was so vehemently anti-American.The book starts with a look into the privileged upbringing of Teddy Roosevelt and his careful culturing of a public persona which stands as the standard view of the real Roosevelt to this day, like refusing to let anyone photograph him playing tennis, but doing studio shots in his Rough Rider gear to promote his manly image as a pioneer. The absolute shenanigans of Roosevelt and then Secretary of William Taft involved in the Battle for Phillipines Independence from Spain, the support of Japan as 'honorary Aryans' in their quest to civilize the Asian continent in the proper white Christian way, followed by the refusal to support them in a post-war treaty with Russia, and the poor xenophobic treatment of the Chinese at the turn of the 20th century are areas of our country's history that are usually conveniently swept under the rug. The best way to sum up this book in a sentence is that there is a picture of US Army soldiers waterboarding a Philipino of some sort, civilian or guerrilla fighter, it doesn't really matter, way back in 1901 and the soldiers had a rather morbid song about it.The main thrust is that white Christian politics of the day stood mostly for setting up a government for uncivilized 'lesser races', usually with disastrous results for both sides, as they were clearly incapable of governing themselves as uneducated savages. Not much of a surprise, but it foretells the whole Iraq mess. All in all, an excellently informative book. I liked the conversational style Bradley uses, like calling the main players Teddy and Big Bill, several reviews were negative on that point but so be it.
    • 4/5
      The Imperial Cruise details the beginnings of World War II, specifically causes of the war that stemmed from secret negotiations instigated by Teddy Roosevelt. Massacres in the Philippians, the sellout of Korea and China and the beginnings of Japans rise of militant expansionism can all be traced back to the Teddy Roosevelt and his yes man and eventual Presidential successor, Taft. The novel also details Teddy’s posh upper crust upbringing, carefully constructed manly persona and troubled relationship with his eldest child, Alice. Also explored are the 19th century American ideas of race and how this endemic bigotry shaped Roosevelt’s opinions of the ‘Asian Negro’s’ leading to the catastrophe of World War II less then forty years later. James Bradley shows in vivid detail how inept American leaders can be when dealing with foreign peoples and the long term tragedies that have resulted directly from American ignorance and assumed position of superiority. The parallels between global events at the dawn of the twentieth century and the beginning of the twenty first century are depressingly eerie.
    • 3/5
      This book was an eye opener for me, one who believed in the benevolent "big brother" concept of the United States. It just proved how selfish policies and belittling of other peoples can lead to resentment. While I would have liked to see a more organized presentation of the fact, this book was an enjoyable read and enlightening of history I knew little about.
    • 4/5
      This is the story of a top-secret meeting engineered by President Theodore Roosevelt that, inter alia, allowed the Japanese to expand into Korea. “With this betrayal,” Bradley writes, “Roosevelt had green-lighted Japanese imperialism on the Asian continent. Decades later, another Roosevelt would be forced to deal with the bloody ramifications of Teddy’s secret maneuvering.”Late 19th century Harvard was the source of a great deal of theorizing about white supremacy, and Teddy Roosevelt avidly subscribed to it. He considered those areas not conquered and occupied by white English-speaking peoples "waste spaces" and believed it was the "manifest destiny" of whites to control all other races.This attitude suffused his dealings with and policies toward American Indians and foreign countries. In the summer of 1905, Roosevelt sent Vice President William Howard Taft, seven senators, twenty-three representatives, his notorious daughter Alice, and about forty additional aids, servants, and hangers-on on a three month cruise of the Pacific on the passenger ship Manchurian. The ostensible purpose of the mission was to “show the flag” to Hawaiians, newly acquired little brown brother Filipino subjects (who were still in revolt seven years after the USA had “won” them from Spain), and various other "inferior" people like the Japanese and Chinese. “Princess” Alice monopolized the press coverage with her good looks and saucy demeanor, but “Big Bill” Taft had an important secret agenda. The Japanese had just soundly trounced the Russian army and navy in the Russo-Japanese War. Roosevelt was about to win the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts as mediator and peacemaker to conclude the treaty of peace between the combatants. Roosevelt’s strategic aims were to extend the American empire over the Philippines and to force an “open door” to American business interests in China.Roosevelt, like most Americans of the time, considered the Anglo-Saxons to be superior in every important way to the “yellow” race that populated Asia, who were perceived to be incapable of self-government. Roosevelt, however, recognized that the Japanese had made great strides toward becoming almost white. He was willing to deal with them almost as equals, as long as they did not become too powerful. He saw them as useful pawns to prevent the expansion of Russian power into China. Taft’s mission was several-fold. First, he was to inform the Filipinos that they were not ready for self-government, and would not be for at least a generation and maybe not for a hundred years. Second, he was to explore the opening of American trading rights with China. And third, he was to give the Japanese the go ahead for formulating a kind of Monroe Doctrine whereby Japan would undertake the role of policeman and dominant country in East Asia. In particular, Japan was to assert outright control of Manchuria and Korea. The Japanese at first welcomed Taft and the other Americans, but later became angry with them when they were unwilling to wrest a large cash indemnity for Japan from the Russians in settlement of the war. Nevertheless, the Japanese took advantage of America’s oral assent to their expansionist policies by immediately occupying Korea and conquering Manchuria. The Japanese “Monroe Doctrine” morphed into the Greater East Asian Prosperity Sphere, when the Japanese invaded China, Indo-China, and Malaysia, beginning in 1933. [The atrocities committed by the Japanese by the invading forces were documented in Iris Chang’s horrifying account, The Rape of Nanking.] Bradley blames Teddy Roosevelt for encouraging Japan to embark on a policy that led directly to World War II in the Pacific.The Imperial Cruise covers more than just the cruise and Taft’s secret mission. Bradley writes a good synopsis of the opening of Japan to western ideas and its forced opening to western trade. In addition, he covers American relations with Korea: how America first befriended the Koreans, but then sold them out to Japan in exchange for Japanese assistance in China. He also details America’s sorry history in the Philippines, where we fought for almost a decade to subdue the Filipino people, only to decide that the islands had little or no strategic value. [The casualties for Americans were relatively light; some 4,000 Americans died in battle. On the other hand, approximately, 200,000 Filipinos died in battle, with an additional 200,000 civilians dying from disease in relocation camps.] Bradley argues that American perceived racial superiority added to the ferocity of the fighting and increased the incidence of appalling acts. Evaluation: Bradley’s book is well - albeit selectively - researched and footnoted, and consistently held my interest. His theory on the cause of World War II is simplistic to say the least, but if placed in context with other histories provides much food for thought. He limns a highly unfavorable portrait of one of America’s most beloved presidents. However, the portrait of Roosevelt is consistent with other accounts, such as the one in Evan Thomas’s book The War Lovers. Maybe we need to downsize Mount Rushmore.
    • 1/5
      Maybe this book is more interesting when read rather than listened to. I listened, and it was a jumble of history facts that seemed to have no relation to the title. I love history, but this got so boring I gave up on it and didn't finish the book.
    • 4/5
      I initially avoided purchasing this book in hardcover (even though I greatly enjoyed Bradley's other 2 books) due to the many negative reviews I read about it. The ones that troubled me most were the statements claiming Bradley made many historical errors. I've read books myself where I know facts are incorrect and it can be rather off-putting. Well as I should have realized, these reviews are mostly angry, nit-picking opinions by people that don't like revisionist history even if the truth hurts. It is clear from the beginning that Bradley is trying to cast a wide net over what has brought us to war in the past and how we continue making the same mistakes and thus never learning from history. I find it hard to believe that anyone that simply browsed thru this book thought it was going to be a day by day diary account of the 'imperial cruise'. I think Bradley may have overreached in trying to cram so much history into such a small book, but I think his points were certainly made. For those that wish to keep history in a pretty glass frame and admire what a great people we were, are and always will be, don't bother reading this book. For anyone that wants just a small piece of how America really was built this is an excellent jumping off point. As others have mentioned, it's no suprise that the majority of white Americans were racist to one degree or another in that era and that it would effect everything from daily life in the states to invading foreign countries. I think the important thing to gleen from this book is not that Bradley is trying to tear down TR and other American icons, but rather why can't we learn from our past history, make more benevolent decisions and bring a better world to all. Not just the few rich & powerful that have dominated US history since only rich, white, male landowners could vote.
    • 3/5
      That handful of people who read my book reviews may have noticed that I frequently make distinctions regarding non-fiction works that are something other than histories, and memoirs that are not autobiographies. James Bradley’s latest book again raises the need to make such a distinction as he presents the reader with a well-researched account of a little known historical episode – the 1905 voyage of the largest official U.S. delegation ever sent abroad (at least before the advent of modern summitry and bilateral joint commissions!).From July to September 1905, then-Secretary of War William Howard Taft led seven (of 90) senators and twenty-three (of 386) congressman (plus presidential wild child Alice Roosevelt) on a trans-Pacific tour, stopping in the new U.S. territories of Hawaii and the Philippines, in addition to Japan, Korea, China, and Hong Kong. The author’s principal purpose is to explore how President Roosevelt’s actions with regard to the Pacific Ocean and the Far Eastern countries set into motion events that would led to the climactic battle of Iwo Jima between the forces of the United States and Imperial Japan (the subject of the author’s first book, Flags of Our Fathers).However, this is not a history, having more the tone of an expose, especially given the author’s criticism of a number of TR’s biographers. It could be argued, in fact, that in this book Bradley was channeling a 19th Century muck-racking journalist, a type with whom the principal subject of his book, Theodore Roosevelt, would have been very familiar. The author’s TR only superficially resembles that figure normally depicted and recognizable in other histories and biographies as well as, for example, in films such as “The Wind and the Lion” and “Newsies”, or even as parodied in the “Night at the Museum” films or the play/film “Arsenic and Old Lace.” And this is the very point that Bradley wants to make, Teddy Roosevelt wasn’t necessarily so.Much of what Bradley presents here with regard to Roosevelt’s ties to Japan and his racial attitudes is not new, at least not to academic historians nor even to a number of his contemporary critics, but much of it is likely to surprise the general reader. Theodore Roosevelt was very much a product of his times and even more so of his family and upbringing, as the author makes amply clear in his early chapters. The first part of the book also makes evident the degree to which Roosevelt could claim to be a self-made man in both person and reputation. Bradley’s Teddy comes across as every bit as image conscious as his younger cousin, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, though the older Roosevelt did not face the technological challenges of radio and film that confronted FDR.The fact that Roosevelt shared the racial attitudes of many of his peers is not news, especially to the historians who have explored his punitive decisions against Black soldiers from the U.S. Army’s 25th Infantry Regiment after they clashed in a racially charged atmosphere with the white sheriff and other residents of Brownsville, Texas in the summer of 1906. [I can only conclude that the author deliberately skipped over Taft’s infamous turn of phrase when as Governor of the Philippines he referred to “our little brown brothers” in assuring then President McKinley that they would not be ready for self-government in 150 years.] Nor is it likely to surprise the more attentive readers to find that the United States government in this period (and not uniquely in its history) often said one thing and then did something other than what it had previously committed itself to do. Today one can read these attitudes expressed in Theodore Roosevelt’s own words by looking up his works accessible via Google Books. (Those interested in TR’s Japanese friend, Baron Kentaro Kaneko, will also find many of whose writings available for reading today via Google Books, among other resources.)Unfortunately, Bradley keeps stumbling over bad history. It may be that in his apparent determination to deliver a black and white case he has skipped over the reality that most historically controversial episodes come in shades of grey rather than stark black and white, or in the recent catchphrase, “it’s complicated.” In one example he states that President Polk decided that the Rio Grande marked the border between Mexico and Texas, as the latter became the newest state in the United States, instead of “the internationally recognized border between Mexico and the United States….the Nueces River.”The reality is more complicated. After his defeat at San Jacinto by Sam Houston’s army, Mexico’s dictator General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna signed the Treaty of Velasco which recognized the independence of Texas and placed the border between Mexico and the new Republic of Texas on the Rio Grande River. However, a new government in Mexico rejected this treaty because it was signed while Santa Anna was being held captive and because he had been deposed while absent from Mexico City pursuing his war in Texas. With the border thus in dispute in the absence of any agreement between Mexico City and what it considered a rebellious province, the issue is further complicated by the fact that Britain, France, and the United States recognized the newly independent Republic of Texas, such action at the very least implying recognition of the claimed border along the Rio Grande River. Most historians today would at the very least the situation with the words “it’s complicated.”In a second example, Bradley recounts how the United States came to liberate the Philippines only to keep it as a U.S. governed territory in the far Pacific Ocean. He summarizes the Battle of Manila Bay as a turkey shoot between the modern steel ships of Admiral Dewey’s U.S. Asiatic squadron and “Spain’s creaky, wooden ships conveniently tied up in a row” to be smashed “into kindling.” Again, the reality is “complicated” since while the U.S. force was clearly superior, five of the six Spanish ships lost were in fact steel hulled vessels. Furthermore, the two protected (armored) cruisers Isla de Cuba and Isla de Luzon were scuttled by the Spanish as it became clear that there was no escaping defeat at the hands of a larger and more capable American force.Despite some passing moments of historical weakness, James Bradley has presented us with an interesting and challenging rebuff of some American historical myths, and may spark some profitable debate among historians as well as his general readership. His account of how during this period the U.S. and the American people related to Chinese and Japanese immigrants to the United States, as well as how the governments of the US, UK, Spain, France, Germany, Russia, China, Japan, Korea, the Philippines, and Cuba, among others, interacted with each other offers some useful insights for today as Americans adapt themselves to the continuing rise of China in a rapidly changing Far East and Pacific community.
    • 3/5
      This engaging book uses the occasion of a visit to several Pacific Asian nations by Secretary of War Taft and a large entourage of politicians, businessmen, and the president's daughter Alice Roosevelt to deliver a polemic against America's violent, racist imperialistic foreign policy. His central thesis is that Roosevelt's misguided belief in the superiority of the Aryan race, and misplaced confidence in the westernization of Japan, led to secret personalized and bungled relations with Japan that resulted in Japanese takeover of Korea with no positive results for the US, and foreshadowing the Japanese expansionism that led to World War 11 in the Pacific. The book describes the cruise, America's horrible treatment of the Philippine people, and background of the various participants in the drama. There is much of interest here but the detail is uneven. The combination of the story of the cruise (and Alice's social impact) and the betrayal of Korea don't fit together very well, and the narrative jumps around too much.
    • 1/5
      Even taken solely on its literary merit, this book rambles and never quite delivers on the implications of the title and preface - that the events of the 1905 Imperial Cruise itself. Behind-the-scenes dealings onboard and at the various ports are alluded to but never developed; based on the tidbits the reader does see, the cruise was actually fairly uninteresting. That must've been Bradley's conclusion, too, because he ends up instead using the cruise as a jumping-off point in his demonization and prosecution of Teddy Roosevelt as the racist warmonger on whom the author ultimately places the blame for the Japanese takeover of Korea and eventual war with the US. Any thinking person can see immediately that this thesis is incredibly simplistic and logically fallacious, but it's Bradley's methods of supporting his claims that irked me the most. He's sarcastic (Roosevelt is almost always "Ranchman Teddy" or "Rough Rider Teddy," Taft is "Big Bill") and transparently provocative (replacing the modifier "American" with "Aryan" at any opportunity), and his work is riddled with easy-to-check factual errors (p130 states that 90 million people attended the St. Louis World's Fair - at a time when the total US population was a little over 80 million). To top it all off, Roosevelt's supposed motive ("Aryan supremacy" as the only driving force behind US foreign policy in the Far East, again, absurdly simplistic) is supported by undetailed summaries of complex historical events: US takeover of the Phillipines, the St. Louis World's Fair, the annexation of Hawaii, the Opium Wars, US policy towards the Chinese before and after the building of the Trans-Continental railroad, the Sino-Japanese War, and the Russian-Japanese War. One would need 350 pages to examine ANY of these events, let alone all of them! This is a screed, not a history. And while I don't regret reading it - I was entertained - I wouldn't recommend this to anyone. If one is interested in histories of American racism as applicable to foreign policy, there are many better books to reference.
    • 5/5
      A must read controversial book for anyone who is unaware how racial theory played a roll in US development. It also exposes how similar USA was to Europe when they tried to colonize other countries. It covers Mexico, American Indians the takeover of Philippines, takeover of Hawaii, broken promises with Korea (reminds me of Survivor), initiation and encouragement of Japanese expansion. It also helps explain why Chinese were the object of prejudice whereas the Japanese were not. Hard and scary to believe a leader could think that way but then it seems that was how many thought at the turn of the century. The reviews on this book are split, however one thing is certain it is entertaining and will make you think.
    • 2/5
      A biased attack on two former presidents, one a chief justice of the supreme court. Theodore Roosevelt certainly does not deserve his status in American History, but Mr. Bradley's shallow research for the tome failed to uncover the root cause of the intellectual racism of the last half of the 19Th and first half of the 20Th centuries, Social Darwinism. Darwin's theory was used as the basis of social theory postulated by several European, primarily German, philosophers and taught at American Universities. Social Darwinism 'reasoned' the Caucasian (Nordic, Aryan) race was the highest development of the human species. European and American imperialist, Roosevelt,among many, used the Social Darwin theory as justification for exploiting others as a component of American foreign policy. A discussion of Social Darwinism in the introduction would greatly improve the book, then Mr. Bradley need not resort to hackneyed, revisionist slang, i.e. American Aryans, the "Meiji Restoration" as 'founding fathers', thus tainting our founding documents with late 19Th century racial theory. (Yes, I know they owned slaves. But they did put the highest ideals to paper) I suggest the reader first read "Darwin to Hitler: Evolutionary Ethics, Eugenics, and Racism in Germany" by Richard Weikartbefore reading Mr. Bradley's book and ignore his unsupported innuendo. If Mr. Bradley quotes his subjects accurately they are sufficient indictment of their character.
    • 1/5
      Hoping to learn more about this diplomatic mission and understand some historical significance of Roosevelt's interactions in Asia, I came across The Imperial Cruise and thought it would do just what I wanted. To my dismay, I found that the title was only a 'bait and switch' trick. The author seems far too interested in making his own suppositions about the mission and firing his own shots at Roosevelt (and every other white male in 'turn of the century' America); and in fact, told very little about the cruise, its participants, their interactions and its history. It only formed the backdrop for the author's attacks.I also found it unusual for the author to use derogatory racial nicknames for white Americans (Aryans) and for the Japanese (Japs) even when he was not quoting someone. His overuse of the terms suggested to me an attempt to build his case of how terrible and rascist everyone was. Applying today's enlightened understanding to yesteryear's world does not reflect history, but rather, the author's unhappiness with history.All in all, I am glad to have read this tale, but wish I had known of the book's ulterior motives and excessive adherence to them; and I may have looked for another account of the diplomatic mission instead.
    • 5/5
      Excellent book and highly recommended. Normally I find history texts pretty dry but I couldn't put this down. This is a must read for anyone interested in american and WWII history or american-asian foreign policy.