The Imperial Cruise: A Secret History of Empire and War

Summary

In 1905, President Teddy Roosevelt dispatched Secretary of War William Taft, his gun toting daughter Alice, and a gaggle of congressmen on a mission to Japan, the Philippines, China, and Korea. There, they would quietly forge a series of agreements that divided up Asia. At the time, Roosevelt was bully-confident about America's future on the continent. But these secret pacts lit the fuse that would—decades later—result in a number of devastating wars: WWII, the Korean War, and the Communist Revolution in China. One hundred years later, James Bradley retraces that epic voyage and discovers the remarkable truth about America's vast imperial past—and its world shaking consequences.