Reds: A Global History of Communism

Reds tells the global history of communism, going beyond the turmoil of the 20th century, and exploring communist ideas, movements, and regimes. It starts in antiquity, not in 1917. It centres not just on the obvious leaders and thinkers but asks how the idealism of millions of working-class activists could lead to their acquiescence in mass murder, repression and social atomisation. A fact whose legacy - unfortunately - is alive and kicking in both Russia and China today.

Paul Mason's startling new book will argue that the desire to live without hierarchy and property is an impulse deeply rooted in our human nature. Reds traces the history of communist ideas through revolts in the ancient and medieval worlds, and chronicles the rise of 19th century anti-capitalist movements. Using first hand testimonies of both the perpetrators and the victims, Mason gives a new and terrifying account of how the 20th century experiment in communism turned into a totalitarian nightmare. But, he argues, the story is not over. Western democracies are stagnant and lacking self-belief. Looming climate chaos demands radical economic answers. Millions of people in the global south see China's offer of authoritarian, state-led development model as a viable alternative. And among the Western left, new forms of techno-egalitarianism vie with right-wing libertarianism in the battle over the digital future.

Reds will be a major analysis as we head into a dangerous new world order where China and Russia threaten major change to the world's democracies.

Review

Essential reading for anyone wanting to understand the forces and ideas that have made our modern world. With a dazzling cast of characters from the French and Russian revolutions, through the Comintern, the Cold War and present-day China Paul Mason brings alive both the key players and the historical forces that they set in motion. ― Adam LeBor, author of The Last Days of Budapest

Gripping, exuberant and epic, Paul Mason delivers a fascinating, accessible and unsparing history of the experiment of Communism ... Essential reading for these times. -- Simon Sebag Montefiore, author of ― Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar

A deeply researched, thought-through, essential history of a protean ideology. ― Kirkus

About the Author

Paul Mason is the former economics editor of BBC Newsnight and Channel 4 News. He is a London-based freelance journalist and broadcast commentator, and writes regular columns in The New European, Frankfurter Rundschau and Social Europe. He is the author of seven books including Postcapitalism, How to Stop Fascism and Rare Earth: A Novel. His awards include RTS Specialist Broadcaster of the Year (2011) and the Erich Fromm Prize (2020).