A review by houseofatreides
Ten Days That Shook the World by John Reed

informative reflective tense slow-paced

3.5

John Reed was a American socialist reporter who was in the Old Russian Empire during 1917. His book “Ten Days that Shook the World” gives a vivid-at times embellished-account of the Bolshevik rise to power during the October Revolution and the ten days proceeding it. The journalistic accounts shows how the Russian people of all walks where alight with fever for this new socialist government.  Although biased as John Reed was a socialist, this book gives a new perspective on the Revolution. As an American in school we are taught frequently of the evils of Communism and the wrongs  it brought to the world. Rarely is it taught how Socialism takes root in places-what are the underlying reasons and why people follow it-in the book we see this. The peoples of Russia having been brutally oppressed by the Tsar under a feudal system sought freedom, ‘Peace, land and Bread’. This books gives a genuine view of Revolutionary Russia and socialism and the hope it brought people. Contrasted with the squalor of the past. Overal a good read that sheds light upon this period.