Stephen R. Platt


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

Early life and education

Platt holds a PhD in Chinese history from Yale University. 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 and the period leading up the First Opium War.
He published Imperial Twilight in 2018, and Autumn in the Heavenly Kingdom in 2012.
Platt has also written for The New York Times, Chinafile, The Atlantic, The Wall Street Journal, and Late Imperial China.

Awards and honors