A good description of the anarchy, rumor mill, and use of propaganda in the November revolution when the Bolsheviks took power. Like, 90% of the events are political leaders or agitators going around in a circle saying I’m the good guy, you’re the counter-revolutionary and traitor and spinning how their side is winning while regular people just try to figure out wtf is going on. In that sense it is probably a testament to what happens when institutional norms completely break down. Also kind of comical to see speeches where “leaders” are straight-faced proclaiming their propaganda is working.

That said, this isn’t something that could be easily picked up and followed without knowing a lot of info already about the situation.

I was hoping for something more along the lines Kapusinski’s Shah of Shahs, but Reed doesn’t add much context to what he’s describing. It’s just reporting dispatches even though they are collated into a book. Good appendix of source material.