Imperial Twilight: The Opium War and the End of China's Last Golden Age

by Stephen R. Platt Narrated by Mark Deakins

Overview

As China reclaims its position as a world power, Imperial Twilight looks back to tell the story of the country's last age of ascendance and how it came to an end in the nineteenth-century Opium War.
*
As one of the most potent turning points in the country's modern history, the Opium War has since come to stand for everything that today's China seeks to put behind it. In this dramatic, epic story, award-winning historian Stephen Platt sheds new light on the early attempts by Western traders and missionaries to “open” China even as China's imperial rulers were struggling to manage their country's decline and Confucian scholars grappled with how to use foreign trade to China's advantage. The book paints an enduring portrait of an immensely profitable-and mostly peaceful-meeting of civilizations that was destined to be shattered by one of the most shockingly unjust wars in the annals of imperial history. Brimming with a fascinating cast of British, Chinese, and American characters, this riveting narrative of relations between China and the West has important implications for today's uncertain and ever-changing political climate.

Editorial Reviews

MAY 2018 - AudioFile

At nearly 18 listening hours, this history of China’s relationships with Britain and the United States in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries might seem a bit esoteric, intended only for history buffs. But Mark Deakins’s flawless narration of Platt’s epic story deserves the widest possible audience, if for no other reason than it makes perfectly clear why the Chinese might take the attitude they do today toward trade relations with the West. As a historian and storyteller, Platt is at the top of the game, and Deakins delivers a fluent reading that is a model of narrator affinity and invisibility. Together they illuminate one of history’s most dastardly episodes, whose reverberations continue to trouble us today. D.A.W. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine

The New York Times Book Review - Ian Morris

…fascinating and beautifully constructed…a worthy prequel to [Platt's] Autumn in the Heavenly Kingdom…Unlike most accounts of the Opium War, Imperial Twilight focuses not on the conflict itself but on its background, going back to the Chinese decision in the 1750s to restrict Western trade to the single port of Canton. The usual highlights, like Lord Macartney's trade embassy of 1793, are all here, but so too is a parade of less well-known but equally important episodes and a procession of gloriously eccentric characters…Good men do bad things, roads to hell are paved with good intentions and golden opportunities are missed. In short, Imperial Twilight is a ripping yarn…an enthralling account of the run-up to war between Britain and China during a century in which wealth and power were shifting inexorably from East to West.

Publishers Weekly

02/12/2018
Platt (Autumn in the Heavenly Kingdom), a professor of history at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, provides a fresh perspective on the first Opium War, the conflict that allowed Western merchants to pry open China’s riches and gain unprecedented trading privileges. Far from an inevitable conflict, Platt posits the Opium War (1839–1842) was the unexpected and bloody culmination of a long period of peaceful relations between British traders and China under the Qing emperors. Moreover, it marked a decisive shift in British attitudes toward China; from being viewed as a mighty empire and civilizational equal, China was now a subordinate Eastern nation, just another feather in the Royal Navy’s cap. Platt provides a highly textured account of the decades leading up to the Opium War, detailing the gradual penetration of the China trade by a series of British adventurers whose antics were more buffoonish than brilliant (when George Macartney first arrived at the Chinese court he donned an outlandish velvet suit and feathered cap in a misguided attempt to impress the emperor) and whose efforts only succeeded because of the severe pressure placed on the Qing empire by peasant uprisings. The narrative is slow-moving and only comes to life in the last chapter, when the breakout of the Opium War provides some much-needed action. That said, Platt’s research is impeccably presented in this winning history of British and Chinese trade. (May)

From the Publisher

[A] superb history. . . . Platt has written an enthralling account of the run-up to war between Britain and China during a century in which wealth and power were shifting inexorably from East to West. . . . Imperial Twilight is a masterpiece of the "If Only" school of history, which holds out the tantalizing prospect of a world that, with the right choices, could be made perfect.” —Ian Morris, The New York Times Book Review

“Excellent. . . . A beautifully written and expert account of western aggression in 19th-century China... Platt writes beautifully, with a novelist's eye for detail. He skilfully weaves through the book a cast of eccentric characters.” —Julia Lovell, The Guardian

“Masterly. . . . [Platt's] book is important reading not only for those interested in China's history but also for anyone seeking to understand the explosive intersection between trade and politics today.”
—Julian Gewirtz, The Wall Street Journal

“A fast-paced story that focuses on the individuals who made the history. . . . Wonderful. . . . For many years, [The Opium War] was explained not as a war waged by a nation on behalf of its druglords but as a necessary evil designed to open up a country that had cussedly closed itself off to the benefits of interaction with the 'civilized' world. . . . Platt's book upends these stereotypes.” —John Pomfret, The Washington Post

“Everyone with experience in China has heard about the legacy of the Opium War and subsequent ‘Century of Humiliation.’ But Stephen Platt presents the buildup to this confrontation in a vivid and fascinating way, which challenges many prevailing assumptions in both China and the West (including some of my own). This is narrative and analytic history of a high order, which will be read with enjoyment by audiences around the world.” —James Fallows, author of Our Towns and China Airborne

“A vivid picture of the history of relations between Britain and China from the mid-18th century up to the outbreak of the war... This thoroughly researched and delightful work is essential for anyone interested in Chinese or British imperial history."
—Joshua Wallace, Library Journal (Starred Review)

“Clear writing and an excellent sense of story and scene-setting mark Platt's compelling reexamination of the causes of the First Opium War. . . . Platt brings to life the people who drive the story, including the missionaries desperate to learn more about China and its language, the drug smugglers who made so much money they still have name recognition, the officials desperate to handle a growing crisis of widespread opium addiction, and even a pirate queen and Jane Austen's older brother. Platt's vivid and compelling major reassessment will shift our understanding of the First Opium War.” —Jennifer Rothschild, Booklist (Starred Review)
 
“A deeply researched study of an early clash of civilizations, when England attempted to impose its will on East Asia. . . . A fluent, well-written exercise in revisionism, one of interest to students of modern geopolitics as well as 19th-century history.” —Kirkus
 
“A fresh perspective on the first Opium War, the conflict that allowed Western merchants to pry open China’s riches and gain unprecedented trading privileges. . . . Platt's research is impeccably presented in this winning history of British and Chinese trade.” —Publishers Weekly

“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, The Spectator (U.K.)

“Charming. . . . Meticulously researched. . . . A rich and finely balanced account of how Britain and China came to blows.” —John Keay, Literary Review (U.K.)

“With a great canvas to play upon and vivid Western and Chinese sources into which to dip his brush, Platt paints a superbly engaging portrait of Anglo-Chinese relations across five deeply consequential decades. . . . Platt's talent for rich detail offers both entertainment . . . and unease as we head towards 1839, and find that international relations turn less on cultural misunderstanding than on what well-informed people decide to do with what they know.” —Christopher Harding, The Daily Telegraph (U.K.)

MAY 2018 - AudioFile

At nearly 18 listening hours, this history of China’s relationships with Britain and the United States in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries might seem a bit esoteric, intended only for history buffs. But Mark Deakins’s flawless narration of Platt’s epic story deserves the widest possible audience, if for no other reason than it makes perfectly clear why the Chinese might take the attitude they do today toward trade relations with the West. As a historian and storyteller, Platt is at the top of the game, and Deakins delivers a fluent reading that is a model of narrator affinity and invisibility. Together they illuminate one of history’s most dastardly episodes, whose reverberations continue to trouble us today. D.A.W. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine

Kirkus Reviews

2018-03-05
A deeply researched study of an early clash of civilizations, when England attempted to impose its will on East Asia.The Opium War of 1839 began, in at least one sense, a half-century earlier, when a British adventurer attracted enough attention after wandering around in the country to give the imperial Chinese government a solid case that it didn't want outsiders to enter the realm. After a period of imprisonment, writes Platt (Chinese History/Univ. of Massachusetts, Amherst; Autumn in the Heavenly Kingdom: China, the West, and the Epic Story of the Taiping Civil War, 2012, etc.), the traveler returned to England, where he taught an American named Benjamin Franklin how to make tofu. After that comparatively pleasant interlude, things took a martial turn; Britain and France sent competing fleets, and Asia beckoned to every European imperial power. China tried to fend them off, with the governor general of Macao, for instance, closing off access to food and water to foreign fleets. While the emperor accepted gifts from the king of England, he did not welcome commerce: "If the king would just tend to the boundaries of his own empire…and feel ‘dutiful submission' within his own heart, there would be no need for a British mission ever to come to China again." The British did come, demanding that China open its markets for the sale of illegal opium. As the author notes, it's not as if there was no demand for the product—Chinese students used it to stay sharp for their exams, and "for those in more humble situations who couldn't afford to smoke it themselves, employment in the opium trade still provided a chance for income as couriers and petty dealers." British victory opened the door to concessions to other European powers and, in time, brought down the Qing monarchy, which ushered in the modern, communist China—surely a lesson in unintended consequences.A fluent, well-written exercise in revisionism, one of interest to students of modern geopolitics as well as 19th-century history.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940169268409
Publisher:	Penguin Random House
Publication date:	05/15/2018
Edition description:	Unabridged

Read an Excerpt

Chapter 1
(Continues…)

---

Excerpted from "Imperial Twilight"
by .
Copyright © 2018 Stephen R. Platt.
Excerpted by permission of Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

---

Videos