A well written history of the Chinese Civil War/Taiping Rebellion. An interesting read with a concentration on the foreign powers (Britian primarily) and the impact of their actions on the war. ( )

Lacks Exposition and Introduction to Main Historical Figures

"Autumn in the Heavenly Kingdom" by Jonathan Spence is a well-researched book that covers isolated parts of the Taiping Rebellion. It is not a comprehensive history.

The focus of Spence's book is Hong Rengan, a Christian convert who was a distant relative of the Taiping leader. Hong Rengan was absent from the start of the rebellion, and thus the author's narrative begins "en medias res" with only a passing backstory about the rebellion's origins. As Spence writes throughout the book, Hong Rengan was immensely popular among the Western diplomats and missionaries. Thus, much of the book also spends time discussing the missionaries and their lives. "Autumn in the Heavenly Kingdom" has a focus on the West's view of events in China - particularly a distrust of the ruling Qing dynasty.

As a biography of Hong Rengan and his role as a minister in the rebellion, this is an excellent book. I was looking for a definitive history of the Taiping Rebellion, which this is not. ( )

Well-told suspenseful story of the most deadly civil war in history. ( )

While this book does an excellent job narrating the political events of the Taiping Rebellion, it treats the Taiping movement itself as an "other" around which swirl the machinations of Qing Mandarins and British imperialists. Far too often, I found myself impatient reading about European and American hypocrisy, wishing I could get a sense of what motivated the rebels and how they became such a powerful force. ( )

No se, tal vez resulta demasiado detallista para quien quería solo tener una idea y un pantallazo de la china del siglo XIX. me pudo ( )