Taft’s 1905 Mission to Asia Revisited

I haven’t had a chance to read this book yet but I’ve long been interested in anything that talks about the American colonial project in Asia and American aims in the region at an earlier stage – there is of course shelves of books on the European powers but distinctly less on America. Taft’s mission to Asia in 1905 had important ramifications that are rarely discussed much these days (as far as I know anyway) so perhaps James Bradley’s The Imperial Cruise: A True Story of Empire and War. Apparently it’s selling well in America and made the New York Times bestseller list so perhaps more discussion of this period will follow. Anyway, here’s the publishers blurb below which maybe hypes it a bit too much – presumably it will only reshape your understanding of US history if you don’t know much US history but then that would be potentially true of any book about an historical event you didn’t know anything about! Anyway a review to follow when I get my hands on a copy.

‘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. Full of fascinating characters and brilliantly told, THE IMPERIAL CRUISE will forever reshape the way we understand U.S. history.’

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