Book Review- The Imperial Cruise by James Bradley



I recently finished reading a book called “The Imperial Cruise A secretes History of Empire and War, written by James Bardley.

History has always been my hobby since ever. I spent some time in modern Japan history and found this book which gives a fresh perspective of a particular era in modern Asian history, a time around the period of late 19th. Author’s opinion and perspective is quite interesting, at least not from a conventional Westerner viewpoint. The entire story is tied to a single diplomatic corps authorized by President Teddy Roosevelt (26th president of US). Teddy sent his daughter, Alice Roosevelt, a celebrity figure at that time like Jacky in the 60’s and his secretary of defense William Taft (27th president of US) on a diplomatic tour to Asia. The corps stopped at Hawaii, Philippine, China, Japan and Korea. Taft had carried a secret mission to sign a secret treaty with Japan Empire to not intervene US annexation of Philippine and in exchanging to allow Japan “have” Korea. This was done secretly without having any consensus from congress and crumbling Teddy’s heroic figure today. Remember that Teddy is one of the four greatest US presidents on top of the Mountain Rushmore. 

How a single incidence can affect the entire regional modern history, and later resulting 10,000 US soldiers died in the pacific theater during WWII. The author also explains the ideology behind America expansion, aka “Chasing the Sun”, towards West, and conflicts/massacres to native people along the progression towards West. Blood was shed almost with no exception from early Native Americans, native Hawaiians, Philippines, and 19th Chinese immigrants. I recommend you to read this book especially if you have Asian heritage. Maybe I shall translate this book.


My next book review is “Morning of Fire” by Scott Ridley. A book about two US ships sail from Boston to Pacific during early 17th century. The voyage to establish new trade routes and ventures following famous captain Cooks great expedition.

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