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 <ST1:COUNTRY-REGION w:st="on">Japan</ST1:COUNTRY-REGION>, the <ST1:COUNTRY-REGION w:st="on">Philippines</ST1:COUNTRY-REGION>, <ST1:COUNTRY-REGION w:st="on">China</ST1:COUNTRY-REGION>, and <ST1:COUNTRY-REGION w:st="on"><ST1:PLACE w:st="on">Korea</ST1:PLACE></ST1:COUNTRY-REGION>. There, they would quietly forge a series of agreements that divided up <ST1:PLACE w:st="on">Asia</ST1:PLACE>. At the time, Roosevelt was bully-confident about <ST1:COUNTRY-REGION w:st="on"><ST1:PLACE w:st="on">America</ST1:PLACE></ST1:COUNTRY-REGION>'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, the communist revolution in <ST1:COUNTRY-REGION w:st="on"><ST1:PLACE w:st="on">China</ST1:PLACE></ST1:COUNTRY-REGION>.<br>One hundred years later, James Bradley retraces that epic voyage and discovers the remarkable truth about <ST1:COUNTRY-REGION w:st="on"><ST1:PLACE w:st="on">America</ST1:PLACE></ST1:COUNTRY-REGION>'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 <ST1:PLACE w:st="on"><ST1:COUNTRY-REGION w:st="on">U.S.</ST1:COUNTRY-REGION></ST1:PLACE> history