Autumn in the Heavenly Kingdom
China, the West, and the Epic Story of the Taiping Civil War
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Narrated by:
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Angela Lin
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By:
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Stephen R. Platt
About this listen
Stephen R. Platt is widely respected for his incisive nonfiction, particularly in regard to his knowledge and understanding of China. With Autumn in the Heavenly Kingdom, Platt details the absorbing narrative of the Taiping Rebellion, which resulted in the loss of 20 million lives. Occurring in the 1850s, this is the story of a cultural movement characterized by intriguing personages such as influential military strategist Zeng Guofan and brilliant Taiping leader Hong Rengan.
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What listeners say about Autumn in the Heavenly Kingdom
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Karen S.
- 05-11-21
Engaging naration, needs more character developmet
So here's the thing, I listened to the whole what, 17 hours? Even after all that I feel like I didn't really learn a whole lot. The begining made sense and the end made some sense but as it seems to always be, the middle made absolutely no sense at all, how much was the british actually involved in this conflict? it's implied that Charles Gordon was a significant part of this war, but is that even accurate? The level of eurocentrism in this book really detracts from the actual story tbat was going on hear and I'd really like to know more about the religious identity of the taiping. I'll say this, I'm glad I finished it, I can finally move on to something else.
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- Michael L Dudzinsky
- 12-01-22
Captivating and enlightening
I found this book to be a captivating account of a period in Chinese history about which I knew almost nothing. The authors depiction of the events and characters involved in the period gave them life and kept me wanting to continue. The reader was excellent. I really enjoyed her style.
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- Mike Adams
- 03-08-24
Spellbinding at Its Best
At Its best, Autumn in the Heavenly Kingdom is a gripping and humanizing account of a chapter of history that had always been taught to me as a bout of collective insanity on the part of the Taiping. The early chapters of this book that laid out the dawn of the rebellion made me feel an incredible kinship with the Taiping. What had to me always been the insane story of Jesus' younger brother turned out to be a mass movement of people disheartened with the fact that their prevailing society promised them something it did not deliver. I felt a strong sense of the personalities of the characters at the heart of the narrative. Platt, as usual, also does a great job of narrating the scheming and politicking the British and Americans did to work this bloody revolution to their maximum benefit.
All that being said, there are parts of this book that I found hard to love. I read Platt's Opium War book before this one, and at the end of that I found myself a little confused at how little the book focused on the actual Opium War, opting instead to cover the years of buildup that preceded it. Having now read a book that stays rooted in the narrative of a 14-year-long civil war, I have a lot more appreciation for the merits of that decision. I found myself slogging through the parts of this book that discussed the minutae of battles and who took what city with what army. Almost everything besides that, the politics, the descent into brutality by both sides as the war dragged on, even the logistics of supplying these armies for so long, held my attention much more firmly than the conflict narrative itself. I set this book aside multiple times before I finished it, and often found myself zoning out for significant stretches.
I think this book would be better read than listened to, at least for me. My unfamiliarity with the finer points of Chinese geography and political subdivisions, as well as my unfamiliarity with Chinese names, led to me having difficulty keeping track of the peripheral figures and settings brought up in the book. I don't think the author or narrarator are to blame for that at all, but someone like me might want to pick up the text to have a visual anchor.
In all, I'm glad I kept on with this book, and feel like I need to follow it up with books on the Boxer Rebellion and the 1911 revolution. At its peak, it plenty rivals Imperial Twilight, but the sprawling, trudging nature of covering a decade and a half of war led to some dull and low points for me.
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- Noah Smith
- 03-10-14
A real-life story of the apocalypse
What did you love best about Autumn in the Heavenly Kingdom?
The humanization of the characters, the apocalyptic visions of the last days of the Chinese empire, and the feeling of immersion and immediacy.
Which scene was your favorite?
The first scene, where the British gunboats break into the Chinese river, and the Chinese peasants bow down to them and worship them. That set the tone for the whole book.
Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?
The end of the rebellion is extremely sad.
Any additional comments?
There are a few really apocalyptic wars that humans have managed to document - the World Wars, the Thirty Years War, the Russian and Chinese Civil Wars...and the Taiping Rebellion. If you want to read about cataclysmic, world-shattering wars, include this book in your reading series.
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- Amazon Customer
- 01-07-13
I just want to give a star rating. If you force me
Where does Autumn in the Heavenly Kingdom rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?
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What was one of the most memorable moments of Autumn in the Heavenly Kingdom?
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Which character – as performed by Angela Lin – was your favorite?
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Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?
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Any additional comments?
I just want to give a star rating. If you force me to say more, I will give you this tripe.
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- Kindle Customer
- 04-28-24
Gripping and clearly told
I enjoyed Platt’s other book on the opium war, and this one is even better. The narration is a little monotone, but the crisp pronunciation of Chinese names and place names helps a non-speaker to keep things straight. I enjoy Platt’s emphasis on economic and social aspects of war and governance over the traditional focus on battles and campaigns.
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- Anonymous User
- 10-22-24
Great
Thoroughly researched and detailed accounts of that time in history from multiple perspectives. Great narration.
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- Mu Shihong
- 01-22-18
Interesting and informative
This is an interesting and informative book, but no human being is able to understand how evil Lord Elgin could be by ordering the total destruction of Summer Palace.
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- Thomas
- 12-02-16
Shocking epic retelling of bloodiest civil war in human history
18 hr retelling of taiping uprising and concurrent second opium war. Worth the time in its timeless lessons of statecraft, treachery, and neocolonial dim grey boundaries between duty, honor, and humanity of naive Western powers playing the great game in the midst of a foggy, faraway quagmire.
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- Garrett Tuggle
- 06-05-19
A dense review of the Taiping Rebellion
This book contains a great deal of information regarding the background, lead up to and the rebellion itself including vast coverage of all parties involved both internal and external. While ultimately a great deal of blame goes to the meddling of Westerners (the English), the narrative does not feel biased. Very interesting subject that receives little coverage in modern Western society (especially in the USA) due to it chronologically paralleling the US Civil War.
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