Ten Days That Shook The World by John Reed. New York. 1919. Boni & Liveright. hardcover.
FROM THE PUBLISHER -
‘Reed’s book is not only the best account of the Bolshevik revolution, it comes near to being the best account of any revolution’ - A.J.P. Taylor. In TEN DAYS THAT SHOOK THE WORLD John Reed conveys, with the immediacy of cinema, the impression of a whole nation in ferment and disintegration. A contemporary journalist writing in the first flush of revolutionary enthusiasm, he gives us a gripping record of die events in Petrograd in November 1917, when Lenin and die Bolsheviks finally seized power. Containing verbatim reports both of speeches by leaders and the chance comments of bystanders, set against an idealized backcloth of die proletariat, soldiers, sailors, and peasants uniting to throw off oppression, Reed’s account is the product of passionate involvement and remains an unsurpassed classic of reporting.
John Reed (Portland, Oregon, October 22, 1887 – Moscow, October 17, 1920) was an American journalist, poet, and communist activist, best remembered for his first-hand account of the Bolshevik Revolution, TEN DAYS THAT SHOOK THE WORLD. He was married to writer and feminist Louise Bryant.