A Secret History of Empire and War - The Imperial Cruise

This book surprised me as I felt Theodore Roosevelt has gone down in history as a great man and president. History proves this to be true, but this author denies the facts. In his opinion Roosevelt led us into World War II single handedly. This does not ring true.
I really hope that people read on after this book and learn the truth about Teddy Roosevelt.]

PRO: If the facts of the book are, indeed, sufficiently true, then Teddy Roosevelt was false in many ways, broke his oath to uphold the Constitution, raped the Philippines, was a self-server first dedicated to his own press clippings, gave away and betrayed Korea to Japan, and was a primary cause of World War II. We do not need false heroes in our culture. We should not teach our children the myths of previous Presidents when the facts do not support the myths. This is a compelling book to read especially if one wants to see the truth. The myth is carved on Mt. Rushmore and is preserved in our grade schools. This is a shocking book.

CON: At times, I felt James Bradley was judgmental but his descriptions seemed, in general, adequately objective.

This is an excellent book and I have given three copies to friends as gifts.

Though very interesting, it was a departure from the other two books (Flags of Our Fathers & Flyboys) I've read by James Bradley. Imperial Cruise is very well written and thoroughly researched by the author. He continually exposes controversy within a few well known historic figures' careers, and holds no bones about revealing some shady history one may never learn in grade school social studies. I found this book an informative step off the beaten path of every day historical nonfiction.

I never realized that Teddy Roosevelt and his minions were that crooked and cruel. We didn't have that in History class. They were as bad as what we have running the country now. No wonder that there is always war somewhere around the world.

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.

Unfortunately I am not an avid reader, but when I heard this author on the radio I wanted to get the book. Well a audio CD of the book was great. Ordered it and really love the little known history of the U.S.'s relationship with China. Great book--great story.

Imperial Cruise is a very good and well researched book. James Bradley is a talented storyteller. I commented in another review about "Flyboys" that it was a book for those who were serious historians. The same holds true for "The Imperial Cruise".

If your looking for the short story of America's foreign policy initiatives at the turn of the last century, this book is not for you. But if you like detailed and chronological details you will enjoy the read.

This book really made me rethink my opinion of Theodore Roosevelt, Bradley lays out how he bypassed the senate to "treaty" with several countries to accomplish his own foreign policy. It also reveals how the US Army's treatment of the Phillipino people ocurred. Very eye opening book. But one I don't regret spending time with.....

Fantastic, well organized and put together with care to insure it's accuracy.

A must read from those who need to see what others might not see in today's
political situation. Mr. Bradley goes to great lengths to insure reader
retains the materials presented.

From excellent to outstanding.

This book was obtained for a lifelong learning course. What I learned from it appalled me and showed some heroes with their clay feet. Racism was rampant at that time all across America. All non-whites were viewed as subhuman.
If you want the documented truth, read this.

James Bradley uses the speeches, letters and writings of Roosevelt, Taft and other government leaders of many nations to show the genesis for many of the political conflicts of the 20th century. This is a must read for anyone who wants to better understand the great conflicts of the 1900's.

Haven't you heard people asking, "why do other countries hate us so much"? (Or maybe you are one of those people!) The answer is not unfounded jealousy. James Bradley outlines the story of America's first era of international colonial subterfuge.

President Roosevelt was a self made man in the sense that he carefully managed his public "self." This book exposes the scandalous success of that media-generated Presidential persona. Teddy Roosevelt carefully honed his image as a macho warrior, a manly man and a teddy bear of a president. The Nobel Committee fell for it and so did the scholarly community that is still perpetuating that image in panegyric biographies. This is a must-read for anyone whose idea of exploring American history goes beyond swallowing the nationalist narrative.

A highly readable historical narrative that carries forth the impact of aryan supremacy (social darwinism) through America's fourteen year war to impose American "democracy" on the Philippine Islands and beyond. The similarity between TR's approach to diplomatic relations with Japan documented in Imperial Cruise and FDR's approach to "saving" China described in Bradley's next book, China Mirage, is uncanny to the point of being hard to believe at times.

If you are one who travels by automobile long distances you are a bored and captive audience. What's better than enjoying a good book and improving your education at the same time. Just perfect for those stuck in a car for hours on end.

The delivery was timely, arrived 2 days before my 2,000 mile journey.

After spending a significant amount of time sailing the S. China Sea and visiting several of the countries which are a part of this work, it turned out to be a page turner that I couldn't put down. If you want to understand what were the root causes and how the events of the 20th century unfolded, the is one of the books to buy. It will open your eyes to the fact that when the US is called Yankee Imperialists, it's usually an accusation which rings true.

The book was shocking in how clearly it showed our involvement in WWII in the Pacific, the Korean war & Vietnam war stemed from Theodore Roosevelt's secret negotiations with the Japanese. None of these wars should be a surprise after reading this book. I felt a kinship with the author because my father served as a Navy Seabee on Iwo Jima & Okinawa. Just a fantastic book!

Bradley is very good in presenting history with a personal story that captives the reader. This book and history is very important to understanding WWII, race relations, and our foreign policy in Asia. I find it very interesting and sad that this history is not taught in in American schools.

This is an eye-opening book. Does the author have an "agenda" or point of view? Of course he does. Does that negate the facts presented or his interpretation of them? I don't think so.

I for one am astonished that, despite being an educated person and very familiar with WW II history, I had absolutely no idea of the history of the Russo-Japan conflict, or the true history of our involvement in Hawaii or the Philippines. I had no idea Teddy Roosevelt thought like that, nor that much of his Empire-building was based on Teutonic/Aryan notions of white man superiority. I had no idea the extent of our waterboarding and outright massacres of civilians in that region. For those reasons alone this book is a must-read.

What about the cruise itself? Who cares -- it's the context that counts, and Bradley provides it in spades.

Although I have nits and appreciate some of the criticisms, I found much of this book to be revelatory and there are few books nowadays that can offer that to the engaged reader.

While reading "Flyboys" I should have picked up on James Bradley's propensity for minimizing the savagery of others (in this case, the Japanese) by describing how brutal we Americans were in the treatment of Native Americans during the Indian wars of the 1870s. I must say, though, in "The Imperial Cruise," he goes overboard in his condemnation of white Americans as they make their way West, killing everything in sight that is not blue-eyed and blond. And, if that were not enough, having reached the Pacific Ocean, a future president, William Howard Taft, and the current president's daughter, Alice Roosevelt (a.k.a. "the Princess"), accompanied by a contingent of senators and congressmen, embark upon a cruise, ever westward, to gain control of the entire Pacific Rim.

I was, at first, looking forward to reading the book, for the original topic was appealing, and covered a part of history with which I was not familiar. If Bradley had simply stayed with that premise; i.e., a series of events that may have led to WWII and the Korean War, it might have been an interesting read. But no; he had to interject his own personal hang-ups related to his belief in a centuries old quest of the Aryan race to move ever westward, conquesring everything in sight and eliminating everyone that was not of pure white blood.

I will never read another book by James Bradley.

For me, the horror of who Theodore Roosevelt was is new. He embodies the vilest myths of race in such a way that it is not surprising that Hitler expected us to agree with his Nazi policies. He also was a traitor to his Country, secretly making deals which were patently unconstitutional. I used think that Reagan and Bush were the worst, but now I see their smug predecessor- Teddy Roosevelt.

This is a fantastically researched historical narrative that has totally reshaped my thinking on Roosevelt’s presidency and beliefs. Must read for anyone who wants to learn more about the “why” behind the rise of Japan leading into WW2.

There are some authors whose books I buy automatically. Bill Bryson, Johnathan Tropper, Ken Follett, and Joe Simpson are all immediate acquisitions. I thought Bradley belonged in that category after reading "Flags of our Fathers" and "Flyboys". I guess that mistake is mine, because this book is simply AWFUL.

Bradley sells this books as about a cruise...but truth be told this book rarely mentions the cruise. Almost every chapters delves into a past sin from America's earlier years...and while some or all of the sins maybe true, I didn't buy the book to learn about those sins. I bought it to learn about the cruise of which Bradley hardly mentions.

Often the book goes off onto tangent that leaves the reader wondering what the topic of the chapter(or even book) is, and I labored through each chapter waiting for it to improve...no dice. Avoid the pain, and buy a different book.

Now. I understand the ties between the WASPs and the Nazis How did this evil man ever end up on Mt Rushmore If half this book is true Teddy is a mass murder on a grand scale. Book is well written and easy to read

What an eye-opening look at a not-very-flattering chapter of American history. Not many people seem to know about what all went on during this particular time. Perhaps some thought should be given to removing Teddy Roosevelt from Mt. Rushmore?

First of all I enjoyed the book with its provocations. However, this has a typical liberal theme. Asia was Utopian World, until that dirty little white man mainly President Teddy Roosevelt and William Howard Taft messed it all up. I am sure there are elements of truth with some of his assumptions, but mostly this racist view of our American ancestors is way over played by Bradley. I do agree with him it was a injustice of America what we did to the Philippino people and was a total mistake in trying to colonize the same. But to think we coerced the Country of Japan, to take Asia for its own by a little cruise and diplomacy is a leap of logic, or the influence of America 100 years ago. Nothing good was said or mentioned about TR that I could find in the book, like the building of the Panama canal for example, which accelerated World trade for the benefit of all human civilization. I basically concluded this guy Bradley has a huge chip on his shoulder, and is trying to find someone to blame for WW2. (Probably what caused the great conflicts of the 20th Century had more to do with Man getting used to the industrial revolution and the race for resources and trade routes, etc, not TR and WHT)

The the store description of the book totally misses the major theme. It may talk about the voyage. I did not read far enough to find out. This is a book condemning Theodore Roosevelt and early 20th Century Americans for White Supremacy. I have read several biographies of Roosevelt and did not detect a hint of it.

My white maternal grandparents were bigots. All there contemporiies were. There were no blacks in Northern New York but they were anti-whie Catholic, Italian, Pole, and ad infinitim. Yet their forebears fought and died in the Civil War to free the slaves.

20 pages were all I could stomache.

Outside of poltical commentary I've rarely come across a book so slanted in its position. When not making factual errors, the author is appparently getting paid each time he uses the word "Aryan". The use of non-flattering nicknames gets old as does the author's interpretation of one's words inserted as a quote or attribution. Frankly, it's a mess.

This well-researched book describes TR's theories of Aryan supremacy and manifest destiny and how they affected U.S. foreign policy, especially in the Pacific. Roosevelt thought that the "Aryan race" was far superior to any other and was destined to hold the keys to advancing "civilization." He applied this theory in the domestic treatment of Native Americans and the non-white peoples of the Philipines, China, Korea, and Japan. He excused falsehood and force as the means necessary to extract agreements from "inferior" peoples "for their own good." Most of these points are supported by Roosevelts own published words. In many cases these words accurately reflect a world-view and mind-set that planted the seeds for World War II in the Pacific and later the Korean war.

I wish I had passed up buying this rant. Obviously, the author is not a professional historian, but even as an amateur this "history" of the imperial cruise during T. R's administration is disjointed and poorly written. With selective "sources" and the author's interpretations it is simply a rant.

I have taught military history on the college level, and team taught a college course on the American experience in Vietnam with veterans of the war. So I do understand the author's feelings regarding his and his family's experiences with the wars in the Pacific.

While he has certainly earned and is entitled to his opinions regarding America and the Pacific, please do not pass these off as historical evaluation.

Mr. Bradley has used "his story" of "The Imperial Cruise..." as a platform to share his cumulative grievances with American policy in the Pacific over the past 100 years or so with the reader.

I sincerely hope writing this book will bring the author closure.

Based on my experience with James Bradley's previous books, I ordered this one with great anticipation and eagerly awaited it's arrival.....What a letdown!.....After 158 pages of hoping for some type of redemption, I had to put it down....for good....I can't remember the last time a book proported to be historical angered me so much......I don't know what happened to Bradley to make him so obviously biased and bitter but I hope he gets over it before future literary efforts on his part......He's done great disservice to Teddy Roosevelt and the leaders of that era.....

I enjoyed Flags of Our Fathers and thought I would enjoy this too.

Had to put it down just a few pages in.

This is not history. This is just sarcastic ranting and conjecture.

For example, Teddy and Taft caused communist China's emergence? A bit overly simplistic. Especially given the world changes in the first half of the 20th century.

I had enough after just 20 or 30 pages.

Don't waste your time on this book.

Bradley might be the kind of white liberal (and I consider myself one!) that conservatives rail against: America is bad and imperialistic; TR is a shameless self-promoter and an expansionist with no heart (look at how TR never spoke about his first wife!). I am also an author and editor, and this book would never have been allowed to press, given its poor research and extreme bias. It's one thing to hold an opinion, but it's another in writing to use quotes out of context, to presuppose what a historical figure is thinking, and to reduce complex people like TR to cariacatures. I have read Morris's books, which tend to fawn over TR, although it does make clear he was not a saint. But Bradley reduces TR to repetitive and trite phrases like "20 years experience as an author and self-promoter" --what else did he do in those 20 years? How about police commissioner, postal inspector, assemblyman--the youngest ever to this day, and let's not forget accomplished naturalist! TR was a complex, fascinating man with incredible goals and determination, even as a young child. If you read about his life, even if you don't like him, you will be amazed at what he accomplished. The many books he published, the trips, his boxing, his unrelenting desire to abolish graft and corruption in government. Bradley conveniently ignores whatever doesn't fit his self-made image of a warmongering, egotistical, rich boy. This book has TR cast in a very incomplete light, due to the author's extreme bias.

Watch the number of times he condescending writes "Princess" instead of "Alice" and the number of times he uses the words "wealthy, rich, expensive," and "Big Bill" is the most ridiculously overused nickname, though there are a lot of those. Bradley repeatedly shows a snarky and snobby attitude, quite jeuvenile when this should be more credible. It was hard to read this book and I filled it with editorial comments where things need to be fixed. Bradley knows that Morris clearly showed how traumatized TR was by his beloved first wife's death. He lost his mother and his young wife on the same day that his daughter was born, and he never recovered. Far from being "cold-hearted," he was traumatized, and depression ran in the family. Alice was a daily reminder that he lost the love of his life.

But the topic is excellent. I think it should be written about. I'd like to know more about TR's less glamorous side, the flip side of what Morris wrote, but this is not the book or author. The book does get better when he focuses what went on politically in 1905 and I found myself thinking, yes, now we get to the events! And they are terrible: what we did to the FIlipinos defies belief almost, and I am glad Bradley writes about this. What we did to Korea was underhanded and unethical. But the book continues to have serious lapses in theme... and Alice is just more distracting fodder for the anti-TR bias. (Amusing, since Bradley writes that she was a distraction on the cruise)

I would advise readers to refer to Morris's "The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt" and "Theodore Rex" and then try to find other books that seriously show TR's less attractive side as a leader and person. I am sure they are out there. I plan to find books about this subject on Asian expansion and US imperialism that are not so biased and do not have such a personal vendetta towards the Roosevelts. This book is NOT well written and the extreme bias mars the research.

This book tells it like it was. Reguardless of how you might vote, or what you think of politicians of the past, this is a must read. Although this has nothing to do with my review of this book my wife happens to be a third cousin of the author.