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

Author: James Bradley

Narrator: Richard Poe

Unabridged: 9 hr 5 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 11/24/2009

Includes: Bonus Material Bonus Material Included


Synopsis

In 1905 President Teddy Roosevelt dispatched Secretary of War William Howard Taft on the largest U.S. diplomatic mission in history to Hawaii, Japan, the Philippines, China, and Korea. Roosevelt's glamorous twenty-one year old daughter Alice served as mistress of the cruise, which included senators and congressmen. On this trip, Taft concluded secret agreements in Roosevelt's name.

In 2005, a century later, James Bradley traveled in the wake of Roosevelt's mission and discovered what had transpired in Honolulu, Tokyo, Manila, Beijing and Seoul.

In 1905, Roosevelt was bully-confident and made secret agreements that he though would secure America's westward push into the Pacific. Instead, he lit the long fuse on the Asian firecrackers that would singe America's hands for a century.

Author Bio

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

Reviews

AudiobooksNow review by Betty C. on 2011-08-07 14:10:09

Enjoyed other books by this author, but this tome was too much of a different political flavor than prior books.

AudiobooksNow review by Albert on 2012-12-04 09:56:09

I was absolutely astounded by the subject matter of this book! I had expected it to be a discussion of the cruise itself and honestly wasnt that thrilled at the prospect of reading it.Instead, the book shocked me and presented me with new American History material that I was frankly unaware of. This book is a mustread for every student and scholar of 19th and 20th Century American and Asian History.I came away angry at the sanitized propaganda that all of us have been fed as students of American History at all levels! It is amazing to me that we are opening Soviet archives and discovering new material about the Nazis and the Holocaust almost every day and each new discovery is hailed as a watershed event.Meanwhile a vast amount of American History, much of it in plain sight, is overlooked or ignored presumably because we might be labelled as UnAmerican for speaking the truth. READ THIS BOOK!