Autumn in the Heavenly Kingdom Audiobook By Stephen R. Platt cover art

Autumn in the Heavenly Kingdom

China, the West, and the Epic Story of the Taiping Civil War

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Autumn in the Heavenly Kingdom

By: Stephen R. Platt
Narrated by: Angela Lin
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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.

©2012 Stephen R. Platt (P)2011 Recorded Books, LLC Asia China Military World Africa War Chinese Civil War

Critic reviews

“China’s brutal Taiping Civil War erupted in the 1850s and raged until the fall of rebel-held Nanjing in 1864. The bloodbath paralleled our own North-South conflict, but dwarfed it in terms of casualties, geography and global fallout . . . [Platt] juxtaposes the competing ideologies and leaders of the ruling Manchu Qing dynasty and the Hunan Taiping rebels with savvy and assurance. By neatly folding in the machinations of the British, Platt paints a picture of combat dire enough to have choked the Yangtze’s flow several times with discarded victims.” (Jonathan E. Lazarus, Newark Star-Ledger)
“Splendid . . . An upheaval that led to the deaths of 20 million, dwarfing the simultaneously fought American Civil War, deserves to be better known, and Platt accomplishes this with a superb history of a 19th-century China faced with internal disorder and predatory Western intrusions.” ( Publishers Weekly, Starred Review)
“Stephen Platt brings to vivid life a pivotal chapter in China’s history that has been all but forgotten: the Taiping Rebellion in the mid-nineteenth century, which cost one of the greatest losses of life of any war in history. It had far-reaching consequences that still reverberate in contemporary China. Autumn in the Heavenly Kingdom is a fascinating work by a first-class historian and superb writer.” (Henry Kissinger)
Well-researched History • Gripping Narrative • Impeccable Chinese Pronunciation • Humanizing Account • Excellent Reader
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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.

Engaging naration, needs more character developmet

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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.

Captivating and enlightening

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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.

Spellbinding at Its Best

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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.

A real-life story of the apocalypse

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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.

Interesting and informative

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Where does Autumn in the Heavenly Kingdom rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

I just want to give a star rating. If you force me to say more, I will give you this tripe.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Autumn in the Heavenly Kingdom?

I just want to give a star rating. If you force me to say more, I will give you this tripe.

Which character – as performed by Angela Lin – was your favorite?

I just want to give a star rating. If you force me to say more, I will give you this tripe.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

I just want to give a star rating. If you force me to say more, I will give you this tripe.

Any additional comments?

I just want to give a star rating. If you force me to say more, I will give you this tripe.

I just want to give a star rating. If you force me

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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.

Gripping and clearly told

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Thoroughly researched and detailed accounts of that time in history from multiple perspectives. Great narration.

Great

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A deep, nuanced dive into one of the bloodiest periods in Chinese history. Exploring the religious, political, and military factors that shaped this pivotal moment in dynastic rule and China's relation to the West, this book covers a lot of ground. While I have no deep knowledge of the period against which to evaluate it, the work seems extremely well-researched and those conclusions or speculations that are drawn appear to be supported with evidence or are otherwise identified as being up for debate.

It's accessibly written, but not an easy read... There are atrocities both personal and on a scale which is hard to imagine, along with omnipresent cynical political calculus, religious infighting, and colonial ambitions adding fuel to the fire. It takes no sides, and leaves one with the hard truth that no party in this conflict, save for perhaps the population caught in the middle, left without blood on their hands. This extends beyond the Taiping and Qing to include the French, British, Americans, and other influential powers of the time. While it covers little more than a decade of Chinese history, it's easy to see how this period had such widespread impacts - and to imagine how slight changes in events may have led to a very different world.

I came to this with a limited background in Chinese history, and had to do some additional reading to zoom out and provide context into which to place this book. The "From Yao to Mao" lecture series from the Great Courses series served well as a very rough overview, which I could recommend to others in the same situation.

A detailed, unflinching history of the Taiping

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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.

Shocking epic retelling of bloodiest civil war in human history

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