Ten Days That Shook the World [Mass Market Paperback]

John Reed (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: 1967

History. Number ME2119. Original price $3.50. The monumental eyewitness account of the Russian Revolution by John Reed, an American who observed the Bolshevik upheaval at firsthand.

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 332 pages
• Publisher: Mentor; First printing edition (1967)
• ASIN: B000HZ6BKQ
• Product Dimensions: 7 x 4.2 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (28 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,734,968 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

25 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars How to get the most out of this great book, June 23, 2006

By 

D. Morrow "[e-mail]" - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: TEN DAYS THAT SHOOK THE WORLD (Bantam Classics) (Mass Market Paperback)

To appreciate this book, you have to understand what it is and what it isn't.

This is top-notch journalism, by someone with a lot of insight into what he was seeing, and a knack for turning up in all the right places. It gives you a vivid, unparalleled *flavor* of the Russian revolution of 1917, the first victorious working class revolution.

But it's still *journalism*. It's not an organized chronicle of what happened, beginning at the beginning and introducing events and ideas in a logical order. On top of that, Reed arrived in Russia at the climax of the revolution, after seven months of intense activity by an overwhelming cast of characters. If you read it too casually, it's like starting a textbook by reading the last chapter.

To get the most out of the book, I suggest reading Reed's introductory material carefully, probably returning to it more than once as you read the book. If you need more help, there's a good summary in the last two chapters of "Revolutionary Continuity: the Early Years" by Farrell Dobbs.

Your efforts will be well-rewarded. It really is great journalism.

For a definitive history, I highly recommend the widely acclaimed masterpiece, "History of the Russian Revolution" by Leon Trotsky. If you like one book, you'll like the other. I promise. Please read my review. (Click on "See all my reviews" above.)

Some reviewers complained that Reed doesn't explain the revolution's shortcomings -- the Russian revolution obviously turned out badly in the long run. But not everyone agrees that the revolution was fatally flawed from the very beginning. I don't. It's hard to read Reed's book and believe it was anything but an authentic popular revolution. For what went wrong, I recommend "The Revolution Betrayed" by Leon Trotsky and "Lenin's Final Fight", a collection of Lenin's last writings.

17 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Compelling Eyewitness Account of The Russian Revolution, November 27, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Ten days that Shook the World (Classic, 20th-Century, Penguin) (Mass Market Paperback)

This is a most powerfully written American radical journalist's eyewitness account of the Bolshevik seizure of power--recording the excitement of the October days and the beginnings of John Reed's own revolutionary disillusionment.

Ten Days That Shook the World is the classic account of the Russian Revolution of November 1917 by a western journalist and has been admired worldwide since its first publication in 1919. Lenin endorsed it as "a truthful and most vivid exposition of the events so significant to the comprehension of what really is the Proletarian Revolution."

Already based in Europe and sympathetic to the cause of the Russian Revolution, Reed was able to observe dispassionately exactly what was going on and to find out not only what the Bolshevik leaders were doing, but to move among those on the streets and note experiences of the masses of ordinary people. Witnessing first-hand the day-to-day events of the Revolution, he captures in vivid and graphic detail the atmosphere of that time.

An extraordinary document of history in the making, this newer edition is the first with contemporary photographs, while a new introduction by Harold Shukman, University Lecturer in Modern Russian History at Oxford University, sets the work in context. Published to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the Russian Revolution, this illustrated edition will appeal to anyone interested in modern history. And quite possibly re-ignite a political polemic.

Warren Beatty dared to make the film Reds, which gives us a poignantly epic visual view of John Reed, his life, his loves and his fierce beliefs as read in Ten Days That Shook The World.

16 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent examination of the Revolution, February 7, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Ten days that Shook the World (Classic, 20th-Century, Penguin) (Mass Market Paperback)

Mr. Reed's depiction of the events in Petrograd leading up to the October Revolution was gripping, well-balanced and thoughtful. The book was not marred in the least by the fact that he was a well-known Communist. Those who percived that are probably either ultra-anti-Communist or perhaps misinterpreted Mr. Reed's work. All in all, an excellent book.