Imperial Twilight: Shortlisted for the Baillie Gifford Prize, 2018
Jun 2018 · Atlantic Books
4.3star
3 reviewsreport
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About this ebook
SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2018 BAILLIE GIFFORD PRIZE
A Financial Times Book of the Year
A Sunday Times Book of the Year
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'Entertaining and well-paced... Platt's compelling book is a sobering read that should focus the minds of those who like to talk of the achievements of the Victorian age without thinking about how those were achieved, or how they were funded.' Peter Frankopan, Spectator
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In 1839 Britain embarked on the first of its wars with China, sealing the fate of the most prosperous and powerful empire in Asia, if not the world. Motivated by drug profiteering and free-trade interests, the Opium War helped shaped the China we know today, sparking the eventual fall of the Qing dynasty and the rise of nationalism and communism in the twentieth century.
Imperial Twilight is a riveting and revealing account of the end of China's Golden Age and the origins of one of the most unjust wars in history.
A Financial Times Book of the Year
A Sunday Times Book of the Year
________________________________________
'Entertaining and well-paced... Platt's compelling book is a sobering read that should focus the minds of those who like to talk of the achievements of the Victorian age without thinking about how those were achieved, or how they were funded.' Peter Frankopan, Spectator
________________________________________
In 1839 Britain embarked on the first of its wars with China, sealing the fate of the most prosperous and powerful empire in Asia, if not the world. Motivated by drug profiteering and free-trade interests, the Opium War helped shaped the China we know today, sparking the eventual fall of the Qing dynasty and the rise of nationalism and communism in the twentieth century.
Imperial Twilight is a riveting and revealing account of the end of China's Golden Age and the origins of one of the most unjust wars in history.
Ratings and reviews
4.3
3 reviews
Mech Pebbles
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October 26, 2021
The story is detailed and very interesting. Practically the entire book is about the events that led to the war. But there's nothing at all about the war. The writer spends hundreds of pages telling you about what happened before the war and how the conflict got ignited and then completely skips the war and proceeds in a few pages to the after-effects of the war. It's almost as if the war was completely edited out. Perhaps this is how Western liberals brush over a one-sided war that favours the West.
Lawrence Freeborn
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March 7, 2019
This book fully deserves all the praise it gets. It makes excellent use of the primary sources which are abundantly available in the form of (usually private) written correspondence by the main protagonists. The author's other book about the Taiping rebellion follows seamlessly from this one as well. Hopefully he's working on the next one.
Kim Grey
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March 1, 2019
Could be 1979 in Afghanistan or Colombia in the 80's. Cracking read.
About the author
Stephen R. Platt holds a PhD from Yale University and is Professor of History at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. His last book, Autumn in the Heavenly Kingdom, won the Cundill History Prize in 2012.
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