20 non-fiction books to watch for in 2012

Oh, the promise of a new year! So many fresh starts and remarkable discoveries lie ahead – including the many that will be made between the pages of a book. For those eager for a preview, here’s a sampling of some of the more promising of the early 2012 titles.

1. 'Autumn in the Heavenly Kingdom: China, the West, and the Epic Story of the Taiping Civil War,' by Stephen R. Platt

Autumn in the Heavenly Kingdom: China, the West, and the Epic Story of the Taiping Civil War By Stephen R. Platt Knopf Doubleday, 512 pp.

China’s bloody and destructive civil war (20 million lives lost over the span of three decades in the mid-19th century) gets a thorough and highly readable treatment by University of Massachusetts history professor Stephen R. Platt. (February)

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