THE IMPERIAL CRUISE

Horace Greeley's "Go west, young man" takes on a new meaning in James Bradley's eye-opening book. The history, narrated by the author, occurs between the years 1850 and 1908. According to Mr. Bradley, it's a time dominated by White Christian Aryans, who looked west to follow the sun and civilize any race or country in their path. How much of this book is gospel and how much is conjecture is unknown to me. I do know that at times I thought I was reading America's version of William L. Shirer's The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich. I do remember the history related in this book, but not with Mr. Bradley's white supremacy slant.

The book is about a large diplomatic mission sent across the Pacific Ocean in 1905 with the secret mission of an unconstitutional pact with Japan. The American delegation was led by future president and current Secretary of War, William Howard Taft. Among the many dignitaries aboard the ship Manchuria was Alice Roosevelt, the daughter of President Theodore Roosevelt. She was known as America's Princess, and in today's world, she would be what you would call a "rock star". This ship also stopped in Hawaii, the Philippines, China and Korea, supposedly to check on the progress of the "barbaric" territories and countries.

The book is primarily about the prevailing attitude of President Roosevelt, most of the politicians, and Ivy League Professors, who thought that only white men were capable of civilizing the world. A lot of the book is about the brutal and unfair take over of Hawaii and the Philippines by a very aggressive White Christian Aryan America. Remember, this is all according to James Bradley. Also very interesting is how America and England got China hooked on opium. The famous Queen Victoria of England actually became the largest drug dealer in history! The book also highlights America's horrendous treatment of Chinese immigrants on the west coast of America, which ultimately caused a boycott of America in China.

As a sidebar to the story, I thought the way Mr. Bradley portrayed Teddy Roosevelt was unique. Everybody visualizes President Roosevelt as a very manly "Rough Rider". The author characterizes the President as somewhat sickly, slightly effeminate and conniving. He goes into detail about how the President staged all his manly pictures. He also portrays the President as a treaty breaker, giving Korea to Japan, our "honorary" Aryan country, to civilize Asia. Most history books leave a lot of this book's theories out, so it's up to the reader to decide on who is right or wrong.

A lot of reviewers gave this book a poor rating. I believe it's because they don't agree with Bradley's seemingly Un-American slant on this subject. To some extent I agree, but I also think it was an enjoyable and well researched literary work supported by 51 pages of notes. I highly recommend this book to all those history buffs out there.

RATING: 4 out of 5 stars

Comment: James Bradley is the son of John Bradley, one of the men who raised the American flag on Mount Suribachi , Iwo Jima during World War II. James's book Flags of Our Fathers was made into a great movie directed by Clint Eastwood. I think that in all of his writings, James Bradley tells it the way he sees it, whether its popular or not.