Ten Days That Shook the World

by John Reed

Overview

A stunningly vivid ground level account of the October Revolution. John Reed, an American reporter who sympathized with the Revolution, puts himself into all sorts of incredibly dangerous situations in order to get the story. This is journalism at its best and most courageous. Reed moves between battlegrounds and taverns, government offices and meeting halls to report on what has been called the most significant historical event of the 20th Century. You hear a polyphony of voices from leading Revolutionaries like Trotsky and Lenin to moderates and representatives of Bourgeois reformists, but also ordinary people like Sailors and Peasants and Trade Unionists and Bureaucrats. ...( Darran Mclaughlin)

About the author:

John "Jack" Silas Reed (October 22, 1887 - October 17, 1920) was an American journalist, poet, and communist activist. Reed first gained prominence as a war correspondent during the Mexican Revolution for Metropolitan and World War I for The Masses. He is best known for his coverage of the October Revolution in Petrograd, Russia, which he wrote about in his 1919 book Ten Days That Shook the World.

Reed supported the Soviet takeover of Russia, even briefly taking up arms to join the Red Guards in 1918. He hoped for a similar Communist revolution in the United States, and co-founded the short-lived Communist Labor Party of America in 1919. He died in Moscow of spotted typhus in 1920. At the time of his death he may have soured on the Soviet leadership, but he was given a hero's burial by the Soviet Union, and is one of only three Americans buried at the Kremlin Wall Necropolis.

Reed's interpretation in popular culture has varied. Some, such as biographer Robert A. Rosenstone, have called him a romantic, while Upton Sinclair derided him as a "playboy of the revolution". For the Communist movement to which he belonged, Reed became a symbol of the international nature of the Bolshevik revolution, a martyr buried at the Kremlin wall amid solemn fanfare, his name to be uttered reverently as a member of the radical pantheon. Others, such as his old friend and comrade Benjamin Gitlow, claimed that Reed had begun to shun the bureaucracy and violence of Soviet Communism toward the end of his life. They sought to posthumously enlist Reed in their own anti-communist cause. (wikipedia.org)

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9798888305393
Publisher:	Bibliotech Press
Publication date:	04/04/2023
Pages:	292
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.73(d)

About the Author

JOHN REED (1887-1920), U.S. journalist and activist, became best known for his writing about the Russian Revolution in Ten Days That Shook the World. Other books by Reed are: The War in Eastern Europe and Insurgent Mexico. He was a graduate of Harvard, wrote for a socialist newspaper "The Masses," and helped found the US Communist Party. Reed died in Moscow, where he received a hero's funeral.

Table of Contents

	Introduction	VII
	Introduction	7
	Preface	9
	Chronology	15
	Notes and Explanations	19
1	Background	29
2	The Coming Storm	42
3	On the Eve	63
4	The Fall of the Provisional Government	88
5	Plunging Ahead	117
6	The Committee for Salvation	145
7	The Revolutionary Front	164
8	Counter-Revolution	181
9	Victory	200
10	Moscow	219
11	The Conquest of Power	231
12	The Peasants' Congress	255
	Appendixes	273

Editorial Reviews

All revolutions are good; some revolutions are better than others; the Bolshevist revolution was of the best. This is Mr. Reed's underlying thesis, and there is no doubt that he writes of it brilliantly and entertainingly. -- Books of the Century; New York Times review, April 1919

New York Times Book Review

<:st> Cited in A classic account of the Russian Revolution of November 1917 by a Western journalist who witnessed it first hand, first published in 1919 and endorsed by Lenin. Reed, born in Portland, Oregon, and educated at Harvard University, outlines the background and causes of the revolution, and details the days leading up to the seizure of power by the Bolsheviks in Petrograd. His account includes meetings with Lenin, troops, and ordinary workers. Includes an appendix of documents, and notes on political parties, organizations, and parliamentary procedures. This new edition commemorates the 80th anniversary of the Russian Revolution, and includes a wealth of b&w photos from the period, plus a new introduction on Reed's life and the historical context of his account. Exciting reading for students and general readers, and a must for scholars of the period. No index. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.

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