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

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

As China reclaims its position as a world power, Imperial Twilight looks back to tell the story of the countryâ€™s last age of ascendance and how it came to an end in the nineteenth-century Opium War.
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As one of the most potent turning points in the countryâ€™s modern history, the Opium War has since come to stand for everything that todayâ€™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 â€œopenâ€ China even as Chinaâ€™s imperial rulers were struggling to manage their countryâ€™s decline and Confucian scholars grappled with how to use foreign trade to Chinaâ€™s advantage. The book paints an enduring portrait of an immensely profitableâ€”and mostly peacefulâ€”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 todayâ€™s uncertain and ever-changing political climate.
Country USA
Manufacturer Vintage
Binding Kindle Edition
ReleaseDate 2018-05-15
Format Kindle eBook

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