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The Imperial Cruise: A Secret History of Empire and War Paperback – Bargain Price, November 8, 2010

4.3 out of 5 stars 842 ratings

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On the success of his two bestselling books about World War II, James Bradley began to wonder what the real catalyst was for the Pacific War. What he discovered shocked him.

In 1905 President Teddy Roosevelt dispatched Secretary of War William Taft, his daughter Alice, and a gaggle of congressmen on a mission to Japan, the Philippines, China, and Korea with the intent of forging an agreement to divide up Asia. This clandestine pact lit the fuse that would-decades later-result in a number of devastating wars: WWII, the Korean War, and the communist revolution in China.

In 2005, James Bradley retraced that epic voyage and discovered the remarkable truth about America's vast imperial past. Full of fascinating characters brought brilliantly to life,
The Imperial Cruise will powerfully revise the way we understand U.S. history.

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Editorial Reviews

Review

PRAISE FOR THE IMPERIAL CRUISE:

"Incendiary...[
The Imperial Cruise] is startling enough to reshape conventional wisdom about Roosevelt's presidency." (New York Times Janet Maslin)

"A provocative study...What is fascinating about Bradley's reconstruction of a largely neglected aspect of Roosevelt's legacy is the impact that his racial theories and his obsession with personal and national virility had on his diplomacy. Engrossing and revelatory,
The Imperial Cruise is revisionist history at its best." (New York Times Book Review Ronald Steel)

"[Bradley's] ingenious narrative thread is to track an across-the-pacific 1905 goodwill voyage by Roosevelt's emissaries....[his indictment of Roosevelt] raises tantalizing questions." (
American History Gene Santoro)

"For readers under the impression that history is the story of good guys and bad guys...this book could be useful medicine." (
USA Today)

"A page-turner." (
Associated Press)

About the Author

James Bradley is the author of the New York Times bestsellers Flyboys and Flags of Our Fathers and the son of one of the men who raised the American flag on Iwo Jima. He lives in New York.

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B007MXCB6Y
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Back Bay Books
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ November 8, 2010
  • Edition ‏ : ‎ Reprint
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 400 pages
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 12 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.5 x 1 x 8.25 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.3 out of 5 stars 842 ratings

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4.3 out of 5 stars
842 global ratings

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Customers say

Customers find the book insightful and well-researched, with one review noting how it provides incredible insights into current circumstances. Moreover, the story quality receives positive feedback, with one customer describing it as a highly readable historical narrative that reads almost like a novel. However, several customers express concerns about the author's extreme bias and poor research.

138 customers mention "Knowledge"122 positive16 negative

Customers find the book insightful and well-researched, describing it as a must-read for those seeking true history.

"...It is a necessary book for Americans to learn more about what really happened beyond the glossy presentations taught in history classes...." Read more

"...Bradley's book has the ring of well researched authenticity. I very highly recommend it to anyone genuinely interested in modern American history...." Read more

"...James Bradley has done an excellent and well-researched job of presenting the history in detail of the exchanges between Kaneko and Roosevelt,..." Read more

"...For this book Bradley centers upon the most adventurous and intriguing of the life of Theodore Roosevelt’s daughter Alice and her first trip to..." Read more

80 customers mention "Readability"80 positive0 negative

Customers find the book highly readable and engaging, describing it as a fantastic and fascinating must-read.

"...these are minor stylistic points and the book is generally an excellent and informative read!..." Read more

"...and thoughts thereafter of a part of history that is still interesting to read and study and to gain understanding and a lesson to share with..." Read more

"...other two - "Flags of our Fathers" and "Flyboys" as wonderful and engrossing reads...." Read more

"...Those interested in learning and objective points of view, it is well worth reading. *..." Read more

57 customers mention "Story quality"43 positive14 negative

Customers praise the book's story quality, describing it as a highly readable historical narrative with an easy-to-read style.

"...This is a book that is as easy to read as it is sickening to read. (It has many fascinating details that cannot be added here)...." Read more

"...Both of those books were well written and interesting, but somewhat narrow in scope...." Read more

"...Alice Roosevelt in this book, and I feel it is mainly a convenient device to tell a tale which is really expressed in the sub-title 'A Secret..." Read more

"...It was hard to read this book and I filled it with editorial comments where things need to be fixed...." Read more

32 customers mention "Bias"3 positive29 negative

Customers criticize the book for its extreme bias and poor research.

"...and this book would never have been allowed to press, given its poor research and extreme bias...." Read more

"...and poor or no comparisons, all so he can make his point...." Read more

"The ugly truth about the U.S. foreign policy under Mc Kinley and Teddy Roosevelt...." Read more

"...are more of the same: dashed off, imbalanced, above all, add very little to complex topics. Mr Bradley was Ill served by his publishers...." Read more

Top reviews from the United States

  • Reviewed in the United States on October 28, 2010
    Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase
    Author James Bradley's title "The Imperial Cruise" is not so much an irrelevance to his story as it is an aside that tells you what was going in the places that made up the cruise's itinerary: Hawaii, the Philippines, Hong Kong, Beijing, Korea, and Japan. The passenger manifest included 23 members of Congress, the Secretary of War, Howard Taft, and the darling of the press, Alice Roosevelt, daughter of Theodore Roosevelt. With the spotlight on the effervescent Alice and her boyfriend, Teddy was free to conduct his foreign policy on the sly without notice of Congress, the country, or the Nobel Committee.

    Avoiding Congress and impeachment requires a better understanding of the 26th president, who he was, what he believed, and the image he nurtured so carefully right down to the letters he wrote to his children, knowing that they would someday be read by others.

    Our image of Theodore Roosevelt is a man's man, a rancher, boxer, wrestler and "Great Bwana," or great white hunter, but the boy whose asthma was so bad, few thought he would survive to adulthood. As a young New York Assemblyman his high pitched voice and purple velvet suit allowed his colleagues and the press to invent derisive metaphors. Roosevelt strove to burn a new image when virility, Aryan superiority, and power were man's highest level of self-actualization. He made it a point to have many photos of him looking resolute in hunter's garb, rifle in hand, complete with fake background, and he would never allow a photograph of him in tennis whites.

    Roosevelt continued his image building by going west in deluxe Pullman accommodations to South Dakota, the "Aspen Colorado" of the 19th Century. Giving the impression that he spent years raising cattle and running his own ranch, he spent no more than a few months in as many years, having spent half his inheritance when he eventually sold the failing business.

    This need to appear manly was part of his education where he learned that the Rome Empire fell to the Teutonic savages because they were overcivilized and had gone soft. The Teutonic Germans melded with the Anglo-Saxon heritage where it honed its advances in civilization to become the dominant Aryan race that should influence the world and tame the "Pacific negroes." Teddy was convinced the White Christian civilization should be spread across the globe because every other race was distinctly inferior.

    As president, Roosevelt had the power and the timing to give expression to his beliefs. He issued the "Roosevelt Corollary" to the Monroe Doctrine, which is instilled in every American today: the U. S. will be the international policeman and reserves the right to interfere in the internal affairs of any other country if it suits our interest. The country goes from a doctrine that is defensive in nature to one that is belligerent. Roosevelt's Secretary of State was ill and near death. His Secretary of War, William Taft was compliant, jovial, and eager to please. He would be Roosevelt's "diplomatic pouch" to the nations he visited by imperial cruise.

    Bradley's account affords a whole new, disturbing insight into American History that is unpleasant to read but profoundly interesting. It was Roosevelt who annexed the Philippines after promising them their independence. It was Roosevelt who encouraged Japan to take Korea and fight Russia, with the promise that they would leave the Philippines alone. It wasn't Roosevelt that brokered an agreement between Russia and Japan as much as playing both to get what he wanted for American interests. And it was Roosevelt who suggested that Japan adopt its own Monroe Doctrine. We would hear of it later as the East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere. It was from Roosevelt the Japanese culled their mistrust of anything western and white. It also resulted in World War II. In the continuing irony of history, one Roosevelt chastised a country for what another family member told that country to do.

    Bradley goes into the Open Door Policy the west demanded, and the Closed Door Policy the U. S. practiced. The annexation of the Philippines is nothing more than a forerunner of the Nazi regime four decades later, as Filipinos are put in concentration camps where disease and starvation take their toll. Moros tribesmen are slaughtered to the applause of the president. Besides the introduction of Christianity to the Sandwich Islands, the missionaries bring pestilence and covetousness that decimates a population and robs the natives of their land. In the final irony the actions of Roosevelt and his contempt for the "inferior Asian races" would be the slow, long-burning fuse that would ignite Asian nationalism and pride.

    This is a book that is as easy to read as it is sickening to read. (It has many fascinating details that cannot be added here). It is a necessary book for Americans to learn more about what really happened beyond the glossy presentations taught in history classes. It is an important book because many Americans think in terms of a Roosevelt Corollary without being able to explain what it really means.

    When I was finished, I sat back and pondered. The book made me think and still does after I read the last page, last night. I suppose that is the mark of a book's success, one that stays in your mind, long after its over.

    "Annex" a copy for yourself and learn what really happened in American History.

    You'll even learn what happened to Alice.
    20 people found this helpful
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  • Reviewed in the United States on January 25, 2014
    Format: KindleVerified Purchase
    I have read 2 other books by this James Bradley, Flags of Our Fathers and Flyboys. Both of those books were well written and interesting, but somewhat narrow in scope. Bradley's father was one of the men in the iconic flag raising on Iwo Jima. This book Imperial Cruise is a very strong historical book about the pathway to WWII. I think Bradley really makes a very strong case.

    I had always known about our "somewhat" imperialistic tendencies toward the end of the 1800s that was clearly a follow on to our slaughter of the "native" Americans. I'm not sure I buy their having any more claim to the Americas than the white man. Though it is certainly true we brutally, unjustly dispossessed them of land they did occupy. Understanding they were as brutal as the white man given the opportunity. We grabbed everything in sight and laid down the Monroe Doctrine. Our treatment of them after conquest being another matter.

    Bradley essentially concerns himself with our Pacific adventures in imperialism. But certainly not to the total exclusion of other grabs at the same time like Cuba. Our duplicitous assistance especially to the Hawaiians and Filipinos is quite detailed. A good deal of the book deals with Teddy Roosevelt's dishonest broker's hand along with accomplices like Big Bill Taft.

    I had always thought Commodore Perry was a great American who opened the doors of Japan. In reality he was an armed intruder who ushered in the end to 400 years of relative tranquility in Japan, truly did awaken a sleeping giant and taught it to be as aggressive and savage as we were. A quote from Mark Twain that was included in the book: "There are many humorous things in the world; among them, the white man's notion that he is less savage then the other savages." We clearly demonstrated our infinite capacity for savagery.

    Myths frequently don't stand up to honest revelation. Teddy was not quite the rugged outdoorsman he portrayed himself to be. He was if anything an excellent spin doctor. The Panama canal was built explicitly in adherence to Thayer Mahan's plan for projection of naval sea power. Which of course Teddy used to further the white man's expansion. Without giving too much away one can see from Teddy's machinations in Asia all the way to our failed adventures in Korea and Vietnam.

    This book was recommended to me by a friend. I looked the book up on Amazon and checked out the reviews. So many people were giving it one star with the epithet that it was just left wing liberal propaganda I had to read it. Honest history is not propaganda. It is reality and who we are.

    I would rather know our history as it truly was/is then subscribe to a fantasy world that never existed. Bradley's book has the ring of well researched authenticity. I very highly recommend it to anyone genuinely interested in modern American history. Its a great backdrop to how we got here. The phrase "little brown brother" takes on a whole new meaning to me now. It is not an altogether pleasant read, but certainly one of the most enlightening books I've ever read.
    6 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

  • Dekker Bourne
    5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent informative book.
    Reviewed in Canada on February 18, 2024
    Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase
    I enjoyed reading this book and I would certainly recommend it to others.
  • keiron John Prothero Th:D
    5.0 out of 5 stars Chinese
    Reviewed in Germany on October 28, 2024
    This puts a totally new aspect on the real sitituation, like china. Russia also has Nato right on its borders talk about provaction
  • Kenneth Molloy
    5.0 out of 5 stars Easy read about Teddy Roosevelt and his relationships with the far east
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 9, 2017
    Very interesting easy to read book with a lot of factual information that I am sure most people do not know about USA politics around late 19th early 20th century
  • S. P.
    5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
    Reviewed in Canada on May 21, 2016
    Great book full of interesting info
  • Kanaris
    4.0 out of 5 stars A fascinating tale of American meddling in Asia
    Reviewed in Japan on September 18, 2013
    Driven by imperial desires and a abiding belief in racial and cultural superiority, a secret diplomatic mission sent by President Theodore Roosevelt set the stage for a century of misguided wars in asia. Well-written and tightly-paced, this book will force many readers to re-assess reputation of Roosevelt, Taft and an ignorant generation of American leaders who caused great suffering and destruction in the Philippines and Korea.