John Reed
Ten Days That Shook the World (1919) by John Reed is a firsthand account of the Russian Revolution of October 1917. Reed, an American journalist and eyewitness, chronicles the dramatic overthrow of the Provisional Government by the Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin and Leon Trotsky. The book vividly describes mass meetings, street battles, and political debates, capturing the chaos, idealism, and popular energy of revolutionary Petrograd. Blending reportage with passionate sympathy for the revolutionaries, Reed presents the event as a historic moment in which ordinary workers and soldiers seized political power and reshaped world history.