[1] Platt holds a PhD in Chinese history from Yale University (2004).
His area of expertise is in modern China, especially in the nineteenth century and the Qing dynasty's foreign relations.
[3] 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 (1850-1864) and the period leading up the First Opium War (1800-1842).
[citation needed] He published Imperial Twilight in 2018, and Autumn in the Heavenly Kingdom in 2012.
[3] Platt has also written for The New York Times, Chinafile, The Atlantic, The Wall Street Journal, and Late Imperial China.