Author Topic: A rousing account of China's first power struggle with the West (Book Review)  (Read 616 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Offline TomSea

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 40,432
  • Gender: Male
  • All deserve a trial if accused
Quote
A rousing account of China's first power struggle with the West


 By Aram Bakshian Jr. - - Tuesday, September 11, 2018

ANALYSIS/OPINION:

IMPERIAL TWILIGHT: THE OPIUM WAR AND THE END OF CHINA‘S LAST GOLDEN AGE

By Stephen R. Platt

Knopf, $35, 553 pages

Stephen R. Platt, professor of Chinese history at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, is that modern-day rarity, a highly-qualified academic historian who is also a

As such, his work is always as rich in style as it is solid in substance. “Imperial Twilight,” his latest book, is set in a place and a period worthy of his pen, the vast and still-wealthy Chinese Empire under the corrupt, alien Manchu dynasty as it staggered into an increasingly likely — but not necessarily inevitable — decline and fall in the closing years of the 18th century and the early decades of the 19th century.

The story begins with the mission of Lord George Macartney to the court of Emperor Qianlong, the still-powerful but aging ruler of Quing Dynasty China. Undertaken on behalf of both the British Crown and the British East India Company, it is a fascinating episode more fully treated in Alain Peyrefitte’s excellent 1991 work, “The Immobile Empire,” for those interested in a more detailed account.

Read more at: https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2018/sep/11/book-review-imperial-twilight-by-stephen-r-platt/

Opium wars, it sounds like England may not have done too well here, I asked somebody from there,  is this true? And they said yes and shrugged it off. There must be a lot to it.  I thought, maybe this is a sensitive nerve but their response didn't reflect that.

A lot of books are coming out on China.

What's past is prologue.
« Last Edit: September 13, 2018, 02:20:48 am by TomSea »