Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I am 68 yrs old and have been an American History buff since high school. I do not recall a book on American history that I started that I did not finish, whether I agreed with its contents or not. That is until I got into The Imperial Cruise. It is not history; it is a screed by a writer that has a problem with how our country developed in the later part of the nineteenth and early twentieth century. To suggest that our presence in the Pacific led to WWII in the Pacific, the Korean War and communism in China is not sustainable by factual history. One could just as easily argue that if we had not developed a presence in the Pacific, it would have become a pond for China and Japan to control for centuries and that the World would look much different today. Both assertions are speculation , equally inaccurate. But the real problem with this book is that the author judges, and comments on events and society of one hundred years ago, based on current standards. That is not reporting history, it is pontificating. His anger and contempt for TR and anything or any body white and American , in that era comes through loud and clear. So clear that one quickly concludes that they are not reading the history of an event, but rather a rant. And that is when I put the book down.