[lbo-talk] books on October Revolution

[Jacob Conrad]

Well, of course everyone should read John Reed, but a favorite of mine 
is William Henry Chamberlin's _The Russian Revolution, 1917 - 1921_, in 
two volumes, first published in 1935.  Chamberlin was a correspondent in 
Moscow for the Christian Science Monitor at the time of the revolution, 
and to my knowledge his work can't be beat as straightforward narrative 
history. Chamberlin was not a Bolshevik sympathizer, but he strives for 
and mostly achieves an objective point of view.  It's out of print but 
well worth looking for.  Princeton UP put out a paperback in the 80s, 
with an updated bibliography by Diane Koenker.

Jacob Conrad

Robert Brady wrote:


> As I have been increasingly convinced on the validity of Marxist 
> economics, I've also been interested in the details of the various 
> attempts at communism throughout the world. It seems as those (almost) 
> every "communist" revolution has been atrocious, authoritarian, I've 
> read 1984, A day in the live of a russian guy, Darkness at Noon so I 
> don't need to be convinced of the horrors of stalinism. I also read 
> some Lenin in college, expecting it to be authoritarian but was 
> surprised to find it actually seemed to be advocating extreme 
> democracy. But then the October Revolution is criticized from both the 
> left and right for being authoritarian. What is a good historical 
> study of the russian revolution with carefully researched sources? 
> I've read some stuff over at www.marxist.com <http://www.marxist.com> 
> but its serious failing is a lack of sources for its information
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