The Imperial Cruise: A Secret History of Empire and War by James Bradley

Nov 17, 2010 Sean O'Hara rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: history-american

Just came across this gem:

"In 1844, America elected James Polk to the presidency. At the time of his election, the United States was a small country with states exclusively east of the Mississippi. The Louisiana Purchase territory was unorganized. Great Britain claimed the Oregon Territory in the Northwest, and Mexico held what would later be Texas, New Mexico, Colorado, Utah, Nevada, and California."

Let us review all the errors in this paragraph.

1) The United States was never a small country. E...more

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Mar 22, 2010 Ken rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

One never realizes about the actions from the past how they will affect the actions of the future. The untold death and destruction of WWII may have been avoided altogether had we the ability to see into the future. What appears to have been practically unnoticed cruise by a few key representatives resulted in some unfortunate results. America's unwillingness to understand other cultures and societal mores resulted, ultimately, in a world war. The history lessons I was taught in school was Japan...more

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May 06, 2013 Elgin rated it 5 of 5 stars

This was a very engrossing book. I learned alot about American foreign policy in the T. Roosevelt and pre-T. Roosevelt years. Bradley paints a very unflattering picture of Roosevelt, at least as a leader in foreign affairs.
He portrays Roosevelt as a racist, Aryan supremisist, one convinced that the non white races were unquestionably inferior to the whites and justified in committing murder, theft, even genocide in our efforts to "civilize" these races. Do you "forgive" people who thought this w...more

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Aug 09, 2011 Gary Null added it

Could a show of American power, and secret negotiations, in 1905 have led to increasing animosity between the Far East and the West, eventually culminating with Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor almost forty years later?

This is an interesting theory, but I don’t think Bradley proves it, especially considering all the other events which occurred within that four decade span.

In the summer of 1905 President Theodore Roosevelt dispatched the largest diplomatic contingent in U.S. history—the secretary...more

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May 03, 2013 Gary Pearson rated it 1 of 5 stars

I found this book to be one of the most troubling I have ever read.

First, but not most importantly, it is poorly written. The author can't seem to decide: is he writing about the title, the cruise to the Far East, is he writing a social history of the time, is he writing about Alice Roosevelt, is he writing about the settling of the Russo-Japanese war, is he writing about American expansionism and manifest destiny and if so on this continent or across the face of the earth, or is he writing abou...more I found this book to be one of the most troubling I have ever read.

First, but not most importantly, it is poorly written. The author can't seem to decide: is he writing about the title, the cruise to the Far East, is he writing a social history of the time, is he writing about Alice Roosevelt, is he writing about the settling of the Russo-Japanese war, is he writing about American expansionism and manifest destiny and if so on this continent or across the face of the earth, or is he writing about a key causal factor for Japanese aggression against the United States in 1941? He weaves, or rather, jumps back and forth between the seven, and more themes. Some should have been edited out completely, others re-woven together, and depending on which you pick-much more meat added. Stylistically it is amateurish, pedantic, aggravating and inappropriate if not inaccurate. His "Teddy's" and (actually, I'm not going to waste my time listing them, they are patently obvious to any reader of serious history.)

Secondly, it is perhaps the most slanted and prejudiced "history" book I can recall reading. The authors prejudices are too obvious, as is his ridiculous trying to tie into things like the Iraq war. This calls into question the worth of the book.

But lastly, it may be an important work. May, if through his slant are some true and useful facts. Was TR really a bumbling, naive, war mongering, blood thirsty, lying buffoon? If he was, we should better understand this. How does this square with his progressivism and (true) conservationism. Was Taft no better? Again we should know. To what degree were we racist and Teutonic loving Aryans and how did this drive our geo political actions. I knew well of the "Philippine Insurgency" and of Dewey in Manila Bay, but seemed to have missed the part in between where we apparently stabbed legimite 'democrats' in the back. Did we really give Japan the green light for a Monroe Doctrine and was that actually significant and actionable?

Things that bothered me a great deal in another vein: the constant repetition of the 'Pearl Harbor' mantra (actually there were so many "mantras" in this book it could be a Greek poem suggests that either a) he actually is trying to make the connection or b) he just likes to say it but doesn't really mean it. If b) it should be fully excised because it goes to the credibility of the whole work. If a) he has to back it up. And since he starts out the book saying it evolved from wanting to know who his father ended up in a war I claim this is his motive. He has to explain how offending the Japanese wrt to indemnification from the Russians was more important than all of the following:
1. The long standing Anglo-Japanese treaty that provided the Imperial Japanese Navy with their warships and their armament through the 1920's (Look closely at the Japanese 15" twin turrets and you'll recognize the same design as was found on the HMS Hood (and many others).
2. The alliances and role Japan played in WWI and how they got the Mandates in the Pacific for being the US and British allies against the Germans.
3. The impact of the US racist closing off of immigration of the Japanese into the US after WWI. This was very offensive to the Japanese who did not consider themselves like 'other Asians.'
4. The impact of the Washington Naval Conference of 1922 wherein the US and Great Britain negotiated a 5-5-3 ration with Japan. Although as both two ocean navies we and Great Britain thought this was more than fair to the one-ocean Japanese Navy, the Japanese were again greatly insulted.
5. The China incident
6. The Russian incident
7. The fall of the European colonial powers leaving a power vacuum in SE Asia and a huge opportunity.
8. The embargo of oil and steel following the Japanese occupation of French Indochina
9. The US decision in 1941 to base the US Fleet in Pearl Harbor instead of San Pedro.
10. The US decision in 1941 to defend the Philippines in the event of a Japanese attach instead of a withdrawal.
11. The assignment of I Yamamoto as CIC Combined Fleet and his decision to push the general staff on the need to attach Pearl Harbor at all.
12. The world-wide economic collapse of the 1930's and it's impact on the rise of militarism across the world.
13. I could list many others but this is a start.
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Mar 12, 2013 Delway Burton rated it 3 of 5 stars

I have never taken to the concept of original sin or that we bear the individual burden of the misdeeds of our ancestors. Mr. Bradley's first two books were even handed and most enlightening, and while this account of Theodore Roosevelt's foreign adventures and the politics of the Gilded Age are most interesting, Mr. Bradley's interpretation of events is strange to the point of offense. His analysis of history would seem just as naive as Roosevelt's imperialistic adventures. Every move the Unite...more I have never taken to the concept of original sin or that we bear the individual burden of the misdeeds of our ancestors. Mr. Bradley's first two books were even handed and most enlightening, and while this account of Theodore Roosevelt's foreign adventures and the politics of the Gilded Age are most interesting, Mr. Bradley's interpretation of events is strange to the point of offense. His analysis of history would seem just as naive as Roosevelt's imperialistic adventures. Every move the United States made from 1870 to 1910 is seen as racially motivated. Are we supposed to be shocked that Theodore's and his cronies (Wm. H. Taft) view of the world is imperialistic, patronizing, and even cruel? That their view of the equality of man comes up short? And then what of the 750,000 dead in the Civil War sacrificed to make all men free? After all weren't they men of their time? Bradley uses the term American Aryan so often that it loses all shock value. The main thing Roosevelt was good at was PR and at worst he was foolish beyond measure. The summation of his favoritism toward Japan, as a counter balance to Russia and China, led to Pearl Harbor is a big, big stretch. No one's crystal ball is that good. He goes on and on an on about the virtues of the Asian cultures and that the US viewed all diplomacy as the big stick. Admittedly the US treatment of the Phillipines is a shameful chapter in our history, but the righteousness Bradley displays from the retrospect of 100 years is astounding. Political correctness would seem to be the new rule of history, ignoring the fact that it took 250 years to gain Civil Rights, rights for women, gays, institute a United Nations, and take care of whoever else has been shortchanged by history and to my thinking to stand in judgement of those who were part of the difficult and painful process would seem smug to the point of indifference. In closing, the most intriguing story here is that of Alice Roosevelt, the president's eldest daughter, who was the celebrity of the age and went on to lead a long and thoroughly entertaining life.
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Dec 06, 2012 Philip Virta rated it 3 of 5 stars

The "Imperial Cruise" in the title really only makes brief appearances in this book. A different title might have been "Lighting the fuse for war in the Pacific" or "Racism and race relations under the Theodore Roosevelt Administration". I knew portions of the history detailed in the book from studying it in school, but I was shocked, saddened, and disgusted by a lot of the material I didn't know about. I learned a lot about Teddy Roosevelt and his race views. I found out about the strong influe...more

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Oct 07, 2012 Jbe rated it 4 of 5 stars

Many people have complained that this book is not really about the subject of its title - a diplomatic tour through ports of call in east Asia and the Philippines by a high level US government delegation at the behest of President Theodore Roosevelt. The cruise serves only as an occasionally mentioned backdrop to a history of Teddy Roosevelt's foreign policy misadventures in Asia, which were heavily influenced by American racial attitudes of the day. I, however, found the book's main subjects to...more Many people have complained that this book is not really about the subject of its title - a diplomatic tour through ports of call in east Asia and the Philippines by a high level US government delegation at the behest of President Theodore Roosevelt. The cruise serves only as an occasionally mentioned backdrop to a history of Teddy Roosevelt's foreign policy misadventures in Asia, which were heavily influenced by American racial attitudes of the day. I, however, found the book's main subjects to be far more interesting than the cruise.

Most fascinating of all are the discussions about beliefs regarding race and the "white man's burden" on the part of Roosevelt and others at the time. The belief in the superiority of those of "Aryan" descent was not something thought up by German Nazis on the eve of WWII, rather it apparently pervaded much of Europe and the Anglo Saxon world long before then, with the Brits and American whites claiming "Aryan" heritage for themselves via the barbarian hordes who swept out of central Asia to conquer northern Europe, from which their descendents invaded England and finally North America. It was the destiny of the white "Aryans" to expand ever westward, to "follow the sun" and bring the fruits of their superior civilization to the inhabitants of the rest of the world. Seeing that the US had expanded as far west as it could on its own continent, Roosevelt and his predecessors gazed further west towards Asia, establishing footholds first in Hawaii and then in the Philippines.

The tale of the US colonial adventures in the Philippines after the Spanish American war are also very interesting. Several parallels with today's wars exist, as US elites convince themselves that the Philippines will welcome US liberators/occupiers with open arms, only to find themselves bogged down in a guerrilla war that lasted until the islands were granted independence after WWII.

On the minus side, the author stretches things a bit with his thesis that Roosevelt's green light to Japan to conquer Korea and his efforts to convince Japan to take a more active imperial role in Asia lead directly to the war in the pacific several decades later - as if the Japanese didn't have their own ideas. The author also presents a one sided, negative discussion of Teddy Roosevelt and his policies, which prior to reading this book I knew little about. I'll have to read up more on TR to get the bigger picture.

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Oct 02, 2012 Carol Foreman rated it 5 of 5 stars

In 1905 Teddy Roosevelt sent his Secretary of War Howard Taft, various congressman and senators and his 21 year old daughter “Princess Alice” on the largest diplomatic mission in history to Hawaii, the Philippines, Korea, China and Japan in what turned out to be a “cruise” that would have devastating effects on US Asian relations, and would set the stage for America’s entrance into World War II decades later.

James Bradley’s The Imperial Cruise traces the speak softly and carry a large stick pre...more

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Aug 11, 2012 Herb Hastings rated it 3 of 5 stars

This book contains information about a part of Roosevelt's presidency that I was unfamiliar with: his secret diplomacy with Japan. The author feels that his secret agreements and promises to Japan laid the ground work for the US's conflicts in the Pacific that resulted in the Second World War. The author makes a convincing case.
However, this book must be read with the understanding that the author loathes Roosevelt and colors him in the most negative light. He quotes at length his racist remark...more

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May 02, 2012 Andy Brockman rated it 2 of 5 stars

The author seems to be riding his success on prior works. I don't doubt any of his research, but I do doubt the amount of blame that he casts on TR.
The thing that is interesting to me is that he seems shocked that Teddy Roosevelt, the best politician of the age, would say one thing and do another. Like all Presidents, he had a public persona and he would say the things that he needed to say in order to get things done. When it came time to execute plans and strategies, he did what he needed to...more

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Mar 25, 2012 Nick Dupree rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: history

Contains historical facts you won't find elsewhere, especially concerning U.S.-Japanese relations and the secret deals made during William Howard Taft's service as Secretary of War (1904–1908) among other powerful roles under President Theodore Roosevelt. The insights into the deals made with Japan when America was a newly emerging superpower establishing her influence in the Far East after the turn of the century, the rebellious Philippine colony her base of operations for expansion, is the boo...more Contains historical facts you won't find elsewhere, especially concerning U.S.-Japanese relations and the secret deals made during William Howard Taft's service as Secretary of War (1904–1908) among other powerful roles under President Theodore Roosevelt. The insights into the deals made with Japan when America was a newly emerging superpower establishing her influence in the Far East after the turn of the century, the rebellious Philippine colony her base of operations for expansion, is the book's greatest value. These pre-WWI secret alliances favoring Japan in nearly every regional dispute, even declaring the Japanese "honorably Aryans," practically knighting them to conquer swaths of the Far East and colonize (and "civilize") other Asian peoples. This U.S. support meant the end of self-government in Korea and doom for the Empress of China and her Manchu dynastic line as a modernized and ruthlessly effective Japanese army blitzkrieg'ed from Southern Siberia to Beijing.

These are the main points the author has to convey, and they are very important, deserving much more ink from historians, a secret history indeed—but he dilutes his own efforts with page after page of invective against U.S. racism. One chapter would be more than enough to fully explain the simple and crude realities of white supremacist culture and its impact on U.S.-Asian relations, but racism explainers fill nearly every chapter. I picked up the book because I was interested in the Imperial Cruise itself, the cruise dispatched by TR to tour East Asia with William Howard Taft and controversial eldest daughter Alice Roosevelt serving as cruise ambassadors. I'm a big TR aficionado, so of course I was looking for every detail of Alice Roosevelt's experience of the Far East and every word TR uttered on the matter of U.S.-Asiatic relations. The biggest disappointment was that I never got those details. The Asiatic tour, though when detailed is fascinating, mainly serves as a seldom-mentioned *frame story* for the background content, mostly concerning the history of anti-Asian racism at its worst apex, the "yellow peril."

Would be better titled "Notes on the History of U.S. Orientalism and Racism against Asians in the dawn of the 20th century." Very important history of foreign relations, but could have been more artfully told. Three stars. (less)

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Mar 12, 2012 Tom Burkhalter rated it 4 of 5 stars

This book is simply blood-chilling. Not being any sort of scholar in this field (life of Theodore Roosevelt, Japanese-American relations, the Spanish-American War, etc.) my first question is, has the author carefully and fairly researched his subject? As with any book of history, the only way to really answer that is to at least partly duplicate the author's research, of which, it must be said, there is at least an appearance of plenty.

At first I found the exposition of American racial attitudes...more

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Feb 01, 2012 Kevin rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: history

An uncomfortable read on many levels that might also be one of the most poorly researched history books to come out in the last decade, if not longer. The only reason this book deserves a star at all is because Bradley attempts to address a touchy time and issue in American history, namely the Anglo-Saxon belief of white superiority prevalent in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century.

Bradley's premise, that Theodore Roosevelt's "Imperial Cruise" of 1905 led directly to World War II, gr...more An uncomfortable read on many levels that might also be one of the most poorly researched history books to come out in the last decade, if not longer. The only reason this book deserves a star at all is because Bradley attempts to address a touchy time and issue in American history, namely the Anglo-Saxon belief of white superiority prevalent in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century.

Bradley's premise, that Theodore Roosevelt's "Imperial Cruise" of 1905 led directly to World War II, greatly oversimplifies the causes of WWII and lays entirely too much at the feet of Theodore. The author's assertion ignores thousands of years of Asian history and demonstrates that he has a poor grasp on Chinese-Japanese-Korean relations. In fact, Bradley also shows that he has poor grasp of Chinese-American relations, as evident in his suggestion that Washington (D.C.) should have just leased warehouses in Hong Kong rather than fight to put down the Filipino rebellion against the U.S. that comes about as a result of the Spanish-American War (clearly Bradley has ignored the Boxer Rebellion and Chinese resentment toward foreign nations during this era of western imperialism).

And in spite of the book's goal of identifying what happened in 1905, very little of the first six chapters and initial 200 pages (of 330+) actually deals with the cruise and the "invisible treaties" that Bradley claims led to WWII. Instead, a more accurate thesis would be that Mr. Bradley wished to address the hypocrisy of white America benevolence and the pro-Aryan Theodore Roosevelt during the time of the mid-to-late nineteenth and early twentieth century.

The Imperial Cruise is also uncomfortable to read due to the haphazard manner in which Bradley constructed the work. Often he throws topics together that have little to do with each other, and he does so with little use of transitions to identify why he lumps information into a single chapter.

Another major issue with Bradley's work is that he quotes extensively, and primarily, from secondary sources, as if he preferred for other historians to do his research for him and then use their opinions to support his premise.

As one reads The Imperial Cruise one gets the impression that Bradley is not only bitter toward Roosevelt, but angry with him as well.

This is a book to avoid completely with one exception. Anyone interested in studying American Imperialism more could use Bradley's bibliography to identify worthwhile primary and secondary sources on the subject. Even then, this list could be found elsewhere.(less)

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Jan 27, 2012 S2 Mc rated it 3 of 5 stars

Probably revisionist editing help to create the basis for this book, though the recounting of the US involvement in both the Philippines and Cuba in the Spanish-American War are both enlighting and ring with truth and some horror.

Bottom line to Mr Bradley's thesis - Teddy Roosevelt's belief in the supremacy of Aryan/Teutonic civilization and the need to continue the push of said enlightened governance further West gave impetus and overt US encouragement to Japan to develop its Asian Co-Prosperi...more

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Jan 18, 2012 Shawn rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Every American citizen who is allowed to vote is required to read this book now.

I enjoyed The Imperial Cruise, and I highly recommend it, but it is not a good feeling to read about how really racist the history of America is. I know we committed genocide on Native Americans, for the most part--I mean, we left enough of them alive that there are several Indian casinos out West and several memorials, but this book will make you puke, quite frankly. It was 1905 in this story; that's not that long ago! And newspapers, all politicians, every president was blatantly racist. It wa...more I enjoyed The Imperial Cruise, and I highly recommend it, but it is not a good feeling to read about how really racist the history of America is. I know we committed genocide on Native Americans, for the most part--I mean, we left enough of them alive that there are several Indian casinos out West and several memorials, but this book will make you puke, quite frankly. It was 1905 in this story; that's not that long ago! And newspapers, all politicians, every president was blatantly racist. It was considered a matter of fact taught in Harvard that only the white race was capable of being civilized. Theodore Roosevelt is president during most of this book, and after him was his Secretary of War, Taft. First we killed our way to the Pacific, then we went over to Hawaii, killed most of the people there, then the Philippines. We tricked the Philippines and told them we would help them gain independence from Spain, who beat us over there to conquer the Filipinos. So after we helped them kick out Spain, Ted Roosevelt sent over Taft and his daughter Princess Roosevelt (I think her name was Alice, but other Asian countries assumed she was the Princess of America). Taft blatantly told the Filipinos in public speeches, "uh, no, no way, you are not able to be independent, basically you are barbarians and not this generation, maybe not in a hundred years could you possibly run your own government. It has taken the Aryan white people hundreds of years to be THIS much BETTER than you, more civilized, so we were lying to you when we said you could be independent. Since you're not even WHITE, for god's sake, I mean lying to you doesn't even COUNT!" And we already invented waterboarding as a favorite torture, so there were quaint letter home from GIs, "yeah, I waterboarded 140 of these 'Pacific Niggers' mom, but only 135 died!" Shit like that. Really. Do you believe it? I totally missed this part in school, and I am goddamn shocked and outraged. White people in 2012 argue, I don't know what those minorities are talking about, it's not our fault they're all in prison. Meanwhile, in 2012, the Innocence Project gets innocent people released from prison EVERY DAY because DNA proves who the real guilty party is. Prosecutors stand by the conviction for a year after the DNA proof (see Englewood Four for this week's example), in 2012, you hear me? Anyway, according to this book, it is only recently we stopped actually writing about it in the newspaper that only whites are civilized. Read about it, please. Read it and weep, America. Own up to it, your country
is based on Race War as its Guiding Principle.
I need to stop writing now, I am going in the other room to vomit from thinking about it again. I'm glad the book is over.(less)

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Jan 08, 2012 Aaron rated it 1 of 5 stars

Bradley bases his premise on the theory that Theodore Roosevelt strongly adhered to the myth of the White Aryan being the dominant race on the planet. This thinking, combined with U.S. expansionist policies, was at the root of America's seizing Cuba, Hawaii, and the Phillipines. TR also influenced, behind the scenes, the treaty to end the Russo-Japanese War in 1905. I think Bradley, much like TR did then, overstates TR's role in this process. While I do agree that race was definitely a factor in...more

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Mar 19, 2011 Mal Warwick rated it 4 of 5 stars

Rarely when history texts or popular books on U.S. history are written are such phenomena as slavery and Jim Crow, the efforts to exterminate Native Americans, the “Yellow Peril,” and the U.S. conquest of Cuba and the Philippines treated as anything other than isolated and disconnected. Dig a little deeper into the sources, though, and it becomes unmistakably clear that unapologetic racism dominated Americans’ thinking for at least the first century and a half of our history as an independent na...more Rarely when history texts or popular books on U.S. history are written are such phenomena as slavery and Jim Crow, the efforts to exterminate Native Americans, the “Yellow Peril,” and the U.S. conquest of Cuba and the Philippines treated as anything other than isolated and disconnected. Dig a little deeper into the sources, though, and it becomes unmistakably clear that unapologetic racism dominated Americans’ thinking for at least the first century and a half of our history as an independent nation. And it was racism — raw, powered by anger, and manifested as a theory of Aryan superiority indistinguishable from the beliefs that drove Adolf Hitler — that account for all those ugly chapters in U.S. history.

Racist attitudes were so prevalent and unchallenged in the U.S. at the turn of the 20th Century that the president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science — the founder of anthropology in the U.S. — could observe, “The Aryan family represents the central stream of progress, because it produced the highest type of mankind, and because it has proved its intrinsic superiority by gradually assuming control of the earth.” In hindsight, then, it should be no surprise that such celebrated figures as Presidents Theodore Roosevelt and his successor, William Howard Taft, would speak openly about America’s “destiny” to dominate Asia and the Pacific, imposing the benefits of Aryan civilization on the “Pacific niggers” (their term for Filipinos) and “Chinks.”

This is the persistent theme of best-selling author James Bradley’s portrayal of Roosevelt and Taft in The Imperial Cruise.

After returning to the U.S. from the Philippines, where he directed the brutal American occupation of the islands, Taft quickly became Roosevelt’s confidante and “assistant president” though nominally serving as Secretary of War. When Roosevelt resolved in 1905 to extend the U.S. empire throughout Asia, he sent Taft on a secret diplomatic mission to Japan, a mission cloaked in a grand cruise with a huge party of Senators and Congressmen and the President’s own 21-year-old daughter, Alice. While Alice’s antics — she was a “wild child” in the buttoned-down culture of the times — drew headlines and enormous crowds of admirers, Taft shared a secret plan with the Japanese “whereby Roosevent would grant them a protectorate in Korea in exchange for Japan’s assisting with the American penetration of Asia.” The ecstatic Japanese quickly accepted the deal, which to them was all about their existing occupation of Korea. They had absolutely no intention whatsoever of letting the U.S. horn in on their efforts to absorb China.

The deal with Japan that Taft brought to closure was secret not just from the public but from Roosevelt’s own Secretary of State, not to mention Congress. It came to light only two decades later when the secret papers recording the history of the cruise and the diplomatic exchanges surrounding it came to light. Roosevelt knew that neither the State Department nor Congress would approve anything of the sort. As Bradley notes, “The president of the United States had skirted the Constitution and negotiated a side deal with the Japanese at the same time he was posing as an honest broker between Japan and Russia at the Portsmouth peace talks” held to end the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-5. But, since all this was secret, the jury that awarded Roosevelt the Nobel Prize for Peace because of the pact was entirely ignorant of his true role in the negotiations.

Ironically, Roosevelt managed to spark four decades of hatred toward the U.S. by giving the Japanese the impression that he would steer the peace talks as they wished — and then delivering an agreement that fell so far short of what they’d expected that the Japanese public felt betrayed. (Bradley attributes the surprise attack at Pearl Harbor from this perceived betrayal, which is far-fetched.)

Historians and biographers typically portray President Theodore Roosevelt as a heroic figure, a man of surpassing intelligence and a profound commitment to reform. In The Imperial Cruise, Bradley presents a starkly revisionist view, relating Roosevelt’s deep-seated racism, his blatant, life-long self-promotion, his duplicitous and often ill-conceived foreign policy, and his consummate narcissism. Though Bradley’s logic falters on occasion, his portrait of Roosevelt is all too credible, the man’s Pulitzer-Prize-winning biographers notwithstanding.

Consider, for example, Roosevelt’s own words from his 1896 best-selling book, The Winning of the West: “Many good persons seem prone to speak of all wars of conquest as necessarily evil. This is, of course, a shortsighted view. In its after effects a conquest may be fraught either with evil or with good for mankind, according to the comparative worth of the conquering and conquered peoples . . . The world would have halted had it not been for the Teutonic conquests in alient lands; bu the victories of Moslem over Christian have always proved a curse in the end.”

(From www.malwarwickonbooks.com)(less)

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Mar 06, 2011 Judy rated it 3 of 5 stars

James Bradley is the son of one of the Marines who raised the flag on Iwo Jima during World War II and his interest in that war and that area of the world is intense. In this examination of U.S. relations with Asia in the early 20th century, Bradley uses a diplomatic mission sent by Theodore Roosevelt as his springboard. In 1905, President Roosevelt sent Secretary of War William Howard Taft on a diplomatic mission that would take him to Hawaii, Japan, the Philippines, Korea, and China. Joining T...more

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Feb 24, 2011 Joe rated it 5 of 5 stars

I finished this book a month ago, but have delayed giving a review because the task seemed so beyond me. Put simply this is one of the most disturbing and difficult histories I have ever read. That said, it is also one of the most revelatory as well.

Author James Bradley's father was one of the six men who planted the flag on Iwo Jima and is featured in the most iconic photo of World War II. Bradley's research into his father's life and the war he fought is recorded in Bradley's excellent Flags o...more I finished this book a month ago, but have delayed giving a review because the task seemed so beyond me. Put simply this is one of the most disturbing and difficult histories I have ever read. That said, it is also one of the most revelatory as well.

Author James Bradley's father was one of the six men who planted the flag on Iwo Jima and is featured in the most iconic photo of World War II. Bradley's research into his father's life and the war he fought is recorded in Bradley's excellent Flags of our Fathers and Flyboys. In undertaking The Imperial Cruise, Bradley sought to understand the causes of World War II. If the war in the Pacific began with the bombing of Pearl Harbor, what led to that? If Pearl Harbor was the blast that started the war, what lit the fuse?

In seeking this answer, Bradley uncovers a secret diplomatic mission ordered by Teddy Roosevelt to the Far East in the early years of the 20th Century. Roosevelt, through Taft, encourages Japan to undertake a policy of military expansionism, a policy intended to benefit U.S. interests. In ordering this mission, Roosevelt sowed seeds in the wind that would reap the whirlwind decades later.

If Bradley had confined his work to simply giving an account of this "imperial cruise", he would have done enough. Yet Bradley turns from his history's central narrative to fill out the broader theme of American Exceptionalism, Manifest Destiny, and its roots in a shockingly ubiquitous belief among America's elite in Anglo-Saxon supremacy. A cursory survey of these concepts is a part of any American History course, but the scope to which Bradley plumbs these depths is surprising and shocking. Obviously racism is and has always been a huge part of the American identity, but Bradley sheds new light on some of its origins and applications in the minds and actions of America’s founders and presidents. Of special interest was Bradley’s account of the Spanish American War and America’s Nazi-like atrocities in Cuba and the Philippines.

The Imperial Cruise is dense with heavy concepts and raw information. This is a book that bears reading and re-reading.
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Feb 21, 2011 Tom rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: history

James Bradley is the son of John Bradley, one of the marines that raised the flag on Iwo Jima. This was the topic of a previous book, Flags of our Father, which formed the basis of the movie of the same name. He also wrote the book Flyboys about fighter pilots in the PTO. The present book he tells us was stimulated by the question of why the US was so involved in the Pacific and, in particular Asia. What he learns makes for compelling reading. The focus is on a journey made to Asia by the larges...more James Bradley is the son of John Bradley, one of the marines that raised the flag on Iwo Jima. This was the topic of a previous book, Flags of our Father, which formed the basis of the movie of the same name. He also wrote the book Flyboys about fighter pilots in the PTO. The present book he tells us was stimulated by the question of why the US was so involved in the Pacific and, in particular Asia. What he learns makes for compelling reading. The focus is on a journey made to Asia by the largest American delegation to go overseas up to that time, headed by the secretary of war, William Howard Taft. Also in the group was the the President's daughter by his first marriage, Alice Roosevelt who was the Jackie Kennedy of her era. He reviews the predominant attitudes in the Teddy Roosevelt administration which viewed American expansion across the Pacific as the natural extension of manifest destiny. Through recently released documents and letters we learn that TR was a great believer in the natural dominance of the Aryan races over other people.He viewed the Asian races as needing the same treatment as the N. American Indians...assimilation and eventual inculcation of 'civilization' or genocide. The Taft expedition engaged in secret negotiations with Japan promising them the Korean peninsula and encouraging Japan to define their own Monroe Doctrine, establishing hegemony over major parts of Asia. Japan was encouraged and supported in its war with Russia which it won handily, however, TR betrayed Japan in the peace negotiations that followed by siding with Russia. He was worried about that Japan was getting too successful. However, the cat was out of the bag and emboldened by its success, Japan proceeded to follow a policy of imperialism. THere is lots of interesting history to learn along the way. The AMerican war in the Phillipines was launched to give the US a foot hold in Asia and seemed to be a forerunner of getting bogged down in endless guerilla warfare. Waterboarding of prisoners was a common tactic used during this conflict and was even featured on the cover of Life magazine at the time.

Anyone interested in modern American history will find this a good book to read.(less)

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Feb 20, 2011 Bob Woods rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction-history

Having lived in the Far East I thought I knew a lot about Japanese and Asian history...but after reading this book my understanding has had a serious re-write. James Bradley did another excellent job (Flags of our Fathers, Flyboys) with this book, which focuses on the influence of the US on recent Asian history. He walks you through the story by using a cruise taken by then Secretary of State Taft out of San Francisco to Hawaii, the Philippines, China, Korea and Japan during the Teddy Roosevelt...more Having lived in the Far East I thought I knew a lot about Japanese and Asian history...but after reading this book my understanding has had a serious re-write. James Bradley did another excellent job (Flags of our Fathers, Flyboys) with this book, which focuses on the influence of the US on recent Asian history. He walks you through the story by using a cruise taken by then Secretary of State Taft out of San Francisco to Hawaii, the Philippines, China, Korea and Japan during the Teddy Roosevelt adminstration. I have to say I was shocked at the true imperialism we waged in Asia, taking some of the most peaceful and advanced countries in the world and ultimately forcing them into war or annihilating them for not following our "civilized" way of life. Some examples:

- Japan, China and Korea were peacefully coexisting until the US forced Japan to open up its borders using our naval armada under Perry (for us to have, amazingly, a way station for our coal-driven ships). Japan turned to the West as an example of way they should be, and seeing our military might drove them to their own imperialism, which was overtly endorsed by Roosevelt as "Japan's Monroe Doctrine." Japan took Manchuria and Korea and relations among the three were never the same.

- The Philippines was in a civil war and the native population had essentially won, throwing out the Spanish, until we waged the Spanish-American war. The Filipinos had set-up their own democratic goverment after a truce w/ Spain, but we forced out Spain, took "ownership" and ultimately had our own guerilla conflict w/ the Philippines that lasted years. The only reason Roosevelt kept it under wraps was by using the press and keeping Congress in the dark.

- Hawaiians had one of the longest life expectancies before we showed up, and essentially turn their islands into a corporate fiefdom for sugar and pineapples. The islands became part of the US only when the corporate plantation owners ceded power to the US government, which was power they didn't have since Hawaii had its own monarchy.

I'm proud to be an American, but this book is eye opening on how we were partly to blame for the influences that bore WWII in the Pacific.(less)

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Dec 28, 2010 Cherie rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction

The additional line of the title of this book says a lot-----"A Secret History of Empire and War."
Nowhere in my past learning, reading, or imagination would I have believed that this could be talking about the United States of America and its past president Theodore Roosevelt. Obviously I need to read more about Teddy Roosevelt and the time surrounding his presidency, but the author of this book wants me to believe that America and its president were out to gain an empire and subjugate the "less...more

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Jun 10, 2010 Paul L'Herrou rated it 2 of 5 stars

Just finished reading The Imperial Cruise, by James Bradley (2009). It is about the Congressional jaunt, sent across the Pacific by Teddy Roosevelt in 1905, and headed by Secretary of War, William Howard Taft, accompanied by the president’s daughter, Alice Roosevelt.

The book interested me because of my previous conclusion, from my reading of Japanese history and of how Hawaii became a US territory, that we at least partially brought the Pacific conflict during WWII on ourselves. Also, because T...more

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Apr 28, 2010 Nick rated it 1 of 5 stars

This book is, in a word, drek.

Written in a thoroughly PC manner, this book goes far beyond revisionism. Bradley cherrypicks his quotes (including many from some dubious sources), takes US actions completely out of the context of its times (as if the US were the only country taking similar actions), and his interpretations of events are, to be charitable, questionable. All the non-US countries dealt with are viewed as utopias, full of enlightened populous who wouldn't dream of even looking crossl...more

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Mar 20, 2010 Damon rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: history

James Bradley, the famous author of "Flyboys," and "Flags of Our Fathers," did an excellent job of researching the hidden agenda of Theodore Roosevelt and his cabinet, and how their racist ideals lead to the Second World War. James covers the early days of Roosevelt, and how he tried to use photographs and journalism as a propaganda tool to change his image. Roosevelt tried to make himself out to be more of an outdoorsy wild man of adventure, than what he really is, a child of privilege and weal...more

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Feb 22, 2010 Alan rated it 4 of 5 stars

How does one judge the accuracy or perspective of revisionist history?

That is, after all, what The Imperial Cruise is: revisionist history. And Howard Zinn would be proud.

In the mode of Zinn, Bradley digs up original documents and straight-from-the-horse's-mouth quotes to build this contrarian case: Theodore Roosevelt was a raving racist who openly promoted Aryan superiority, who saw nothing wrong with ethnic cleansing in the name of Teutonic superiority and inevitability, and whose arrogant di...more

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Jan 20, 2010 Tripp rated it 2 of 5 stars

James Bradley's The Imperial Cruise is a book that could have been quite good, and perhaps even important, but it isn't. Instead it is a maddening, bitchy book that attempts to reassess Theodore Roosevelt's foreign policy. Bradley's thesis is that the American ruling class had an ideology based around an Aryan ideal of the Anglo Saxon. Raising the Anglo Saxon above all others, the US felt free to trample across anyone in its path. The US recognized the Japanese as almost Anglo Saxons and gave th...more James Bradley's The Imperial Cruise is a book that could have been quite good, and perhaps even important, but it isn't. Instead it is a maddening, bitchy book that attempts to reassess Theodore Roosevelt's foreign policy. Bradley's thesis is that the American ruling class had an ideology based around an Aryan ideal of the Anglo Saxon. Raising the Anglo Saxon above all others, the US felt free to trample across anyone in its path. The US recognized the Japanese as almost Anglo Saxons and gave them the nod to occupy Korea. This occupation led to the growth of the Japanese Empire, Pearl Harbor, the rise of Communist China and I suppose everything else that happened in Asia in the 20th century.

Where to begin on the book's problems? First is the relatively insignificant one. Bradley really dislikes Roosevelt and his Secretary of War William Taft. He goes out of his way to show that Roosevelt really wasn't much of a Westerner and was basically an upper class sissy. He makes sure we know that Taft was overweight, even calling him Big Bill with regularity. Is this necessary to support his argument? No, but it reveals the contempt for the subject which weakens and cheapens the book.

The bigger problem is with his idea that racism inspired and allowed the cruel Japanese occupation of Korea and created the path for the tragedies of the 20th century. Firstly, what on Earth could the U.S. (or anyone else) do to stop Japan from taking Korea? Russia and China were down for the count, England was retreating to Europe to face the Germans and the United States wasn't strong enough. In 1905, it is hard to imagine the United States managing to fight the Japanese Army and Navy thousands of miles from major bases (Yes, it did to Spain a few years prior, but Spain was on its last legs.)

What's worse though is the idea that it was the United States rather than Japan's own domestic path and the prevailing norms of the great powers that led the country to imperialism. His argument implies that the Japanese were the simple puppets of the United States rather than a state setting its own priorities. If the U.S. had somehow kept the Japanese from taking Korea in 1905, they would have taken it in the next few years and certainly would taken it in the chaos of World War One, just as they used the opportunity to seize all of Germany's possessions in Asia.(less)

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Jun 04, 2012 Whitney rated it 1 of 5 stars

Wow. Mr. James Bradley, I am disappointed in you. I am disappointed in your attempt to be a historian and revise history to your agenda. You cannot honestly set sole blame to Roosevelt and his foreign policy for Japanese imperial aims of the 20th century. You are grasping for straws and although you have meticulously research the subject matter, your conclusions do not hold water. Roosevelt, Taft and Victorian racism is not the primary reason for Japanese Imperial expansion which inevitably lead...more

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Aug 02, 2011 Tyler Hartford added it

A little choppy in places, but this book is great background reading on the sparks that started the WWII Pacific Theater conflict, Korean War, Vietnam War, and the current struggle around the Pacific Rim countries. What is really nice is to have a writer who so clearly respects the veterans of WWII, and yet feels free to critique the individuals and decisions that set in motion the idea of an Asian Monroe Doctrine (cultivated by Teddy R. and Taft and first embraced by Japan). This is the first t...more

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