Taiping Rebellion: A History from Beginning to End (History of China) Paperback – January 11, 2021

What an impressive chapter of Chinese history. I had never known of such horror caused basically by a religious belief. Much suffering which could have been avoided.

I read this book on the heels of reading Rutherfurd's book, China. It filled in some important details. I recommend this if you are interested in Chinese history.

The Taiping Rebellion (1850-1864) was a massive rebellion or civil war that was waged in China between the established Qing dynasty and the theocratic Taiping Heavenly Kingdom - though following the fall of Nanjing the last rebel army was not wiped out until 1871. After fighting the bloodiest civil war in world history, with some historians believing fatalities to be as high as 70 million, the established Qing government won decisively, although the outcome is considered a pyrrhic victory. (wiki).A wonderful read, and clearly shows how little Chinese value human life, a trait which has been evident in Chinese history many times, and which is evident today with the Uighur genocidal concentration camps, and a trait which makes China very likely to start a new world war.

Taiping Rebellion: A History from Beginning to End (History of China)It begins with the fall of the Ming Dynasty 1644 they were mostly from the Chinese Han population.They were conquered by the Manchurian Qing Dynasty, a foreign ruler, that lasted until around 1917 + - and modern day China.The Taiping Rebellion lasted a few decades, 20,000,000 to 30,000,000 people were killed, mostly for naught. A deadly, nonsensical rebellion with little to no gain, except for the foreigners, Britain, French, possibly the Russians, opening up trade routes.The book is a quick read, I give it three stars only because it reads like my above comments, somewhat dry and sluggish. It did explain the rebellion in very broad terms, it was bloody and brutal.Overall worth understanding the historyFavorite quote in the book:“If you think in terms of a year, plant a seed; if in terms of ten years, plant trees; if in terms of 100 years, teach the people.” —Confucius

This is a great introduction to a civil war few know about, but that ultimately became the deadliest civil war in history. A great read for anyone interested in Chinese history.

An insightful look at the cival war in China from 1837 to the present.

This little book shared a lot of info on a relatively unknown part of history

One can appreciate the depth of research to compile this book, so: the content is OK, but (sometimes) the story does not flow and it can be awkward to follow the history of events, and the plethora of personalities.One can only wonder at what the population of China would be today without the great loss of life in this (and subsequent) events..... and what would have happened without adding religion and foreign intervention into the mix?