Let’s discuss: "Autumn in the Heavenly Kingdom" by Stephen Platt

Ready for a wild adventure with charismatic prophets, swashbuckling battles, and imperial meltdowns?

This month, we’re diving into the gigantic war you’ve never heard of - China’s Taiping Rebellion. ‘Autumn in the Heavenly Kingdom,’ is a sweeping, often unbelievable story of the conflict that left 20 million people dead.

We’ll talk messianic movements gone wildly off the rails, global power struggles, and how the fate of 19th-century China got tangled up in missionary zeal and opium profits. It’s part war epic, part cautionary tale, and part “wait, what?” history lesson.