Stephen R. Platt is an American historian and writer. He is currently a professor of Chinese history at the

University of Massachusetts Amherst The University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMass Amherst) is a public land-grant research university in Amherst, Massachusetts, United States. It is the flagship campus of the University of Massachusetts system and was founded in 1863 as the ...

Early life and education

Platt holds a PhD in Chinese history from

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Stat ...

(2004). His area of expertise is in modern China, especially in the nineteenth century and the Qing dynasty's foreign relations.

Writing career

In 2007 he published ''Provincial Patriots: The Hunanese and Modern China''. Platt's books ''Autumn in the Heavenly Kingdom'' and ''Imperial Twilight'' (examine East-West relations in China during the 19th century, focusing on the

Taiping Rebellion The Taiping Rebellion, also known as the Taiping Civil War or the Taiping Revolution, was a civil war in China between the Qing dynasty and the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. The conflict lasted 14 years, from its outbreak in 1850 until the fall of ...

(1850-1864) and the period leading up the

First Opium War The First Opium War ( zh, t=第一次鴉片戰爭, p=Dìyīcì yāpiàn zhànzhēng), also known as the Anglo-Chinese War, was a series of military engagements fought between the British Empire and the Chinese Qing dynasty between 1839 and 1 ...

(1800-1842). He published ''Imperial Twilight'' in 2018, and ''Autumn in the Heavenly Kingdom'' in 2012. Platt has also written for ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'', ''Chinafile'', ''

The Atlantic ''The Atlantic'' is an American magazine and multi-platform publisher based in Washington, D.C. It features articles on politics, foreign affairs, business and the economy, culture and the arts, technology, and science. It was founded in 185 ...

'', ''

The Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' (''WSJ''), also referred to simply as the ''Journal,'' is an American newspaper based in New York City. The newspaper provides extensive coverage of news, especially business and finance. It operates on a subscriptio ...

'', and ''

Late Imperial China The history of China spans several millennia across a wide geographical area. Each region now considered part of the Chinese world has experienced periods of unity, fracture, prosperity, and strife. Chinese civilization first emerged in the ...

''.

Awards and honors

*2004 Theron Rockwell Field Prize (Yale University) for dissertation ''Hunanese Nationalism and the Revival of Wang Fuzhi, 1839-1923'' *2012 Cundill Prize in History winner for ''Autumn in the Heavenly Kingdom'' *2018

Baillie Gifford Prize The Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction, formerly the Samuel Johnson Prize, is an annual British book prize for the best non-fiction writing in the English language. It was founded in 1999 following the demise of the NCR Book Award. With its ...

shortlist for '' Imperial Twilight''

Bibliography

* ''Provincial Patriots: The Hunanese and Modern China''  (Harvard University Press, 2007). * ''Autumn in the Heavenly Kingdom: China, the West, and the Epic Story of the Taiping Civil War'' (Knopf, 2012) * '' Imperial Twilight: The Opium War and the End of China's Last Golden Age'' (Alfred A. Knopf, 2018)

References

External links

Stephen R. Platt Biography
Living people American sinologists Historians of China 21st-century American historians 21st-century American male writers University of Massachusetts Amherst faculty Yale University alumni Year of birth missing (living people) American male non-fiction writers {{US-historian-stub