Talk:James Bradley (American author)

NPOV?
this page is pure puffery. He took "infinite" care, or whatever ? Does the writer of that publicity release know the meaning of "infinite" 74.66.68.54 (talk) 19:58, 19 June 2012 (UTC)


 * Agreed. While Bradley's first two books were generally highly regarded as historically accurate, his third book is far more controversial and borders on a "harangue" in the minds by many general readers (see for example the various reviews by readers on Amazon of all three). Even professional reviewers point this out - for example, the reviewer for Booklist writes, "Bradley’s first books, Flags of Our Fathers (2000) and Flyboys (2003), were sensationally popular World War II combat stories.His new one, about U.S.-Japanese diplomacy in 1905, represents a departure. Asserting a causal connection between diplomatic understandings reached then and war 36 years later, Bradley dramatizes his case with a delegation Theodore Roosevelt dispatched to Japan in the summer of 1905. Led by Secretary of War William Taft and ornamented by the president’s quotable daughter Alice, it sailed while TR hosted the peace conference between victorious Japan and defeated Russia. As he recounts the itinerary of Taft’s cruise, Bradley discusses attitudes of social Darwinism and white superiority that were then prevalent and expressed by TR and Taft. They modified their instincts, Bradley argues, in dealing with nonwhite Japan, and secretly conceded it possession of Korea. This is what Bradley asserts was a prerequisite to Pearl Harbor in 1941, a dubious thesis when the tensions of the 1930s stemmed from general Japanese aggressiveness, not its control of Korea per se. Bradley does fine on 1905 but falters when predicting the future." Some professional historians are less kind, describing "the pomposity and the utter absurdity..." of Bradley's work in "Imperial Cruise." Sadly, he appears to continue his revisionist views apparently in the fourth book on east-west history released in April 2015. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.50.92.159 (talk) 13:34, 25 April 2015 (UTC)

Biography
I found a link via the wayback machine with some biographical information. I added it to the page. It was not a lot and if anyone else wants to do more digging they are welcome to it!

AnneofKeys (talk) 20:48, 24 October 2023 (UTC)