THE IMPERIAL CRUISE
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"Incendiary...[The Imperial Cruise] is startling enough to reshape conventional wisdom about Roosevelt's presidency."
-- New York Times
"For readers under the impression that history is the story of good guys and bad guys...this book could be useful medicine."
-- USA Today
Author: James Bradley
Year: 2009
Buy it here: Amazon, Book Depository
Summary:
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.
Book description credit: Amazon