Ten Days That Shook the World

“Adventure it was, and one of the most marvellous mankind ever embarked upon, sweeping into history at the head of the toiling masses, and staking everything on their vast and simple desires. Already the machinery had been set up by which the land of the great estates could be distributed among the peasants.” – John Reed John Reed’s Ten Days that Shook the World, published in 1922, is a gripping account of the Russian Revolution that took place just years earlier in the midst of World War I. Of course, nobody knew at the time just how important the Russian Revolution would be geopolitically, especially with the advent of the Cold War less than 25 years later. Reed’s account was firsthand; as a journalist, he was in Russia when the Revolution transpired. The book was popular and influential enough that it made the rounds among Russia’s leadership, with Stalin himself arguing against some of Reed’s theses.