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The War in Eastern Europe
This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the "public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.
358 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1916
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
June 19, 2016
John Reed's most famous book is Ten Days that Shook the World (later filmed as the movie "Reds"), an account of the Russian Revolution of October 1917, written from his perspective as a journalist who was actually there, in St Petersburg. The War in Eastern Europe was written a couple of years earlier, based on his wanderings through the war-torn Balkans. It may have helped give him a better foundation to understand what was to happen shortly afterwards in Russia, a country that was also wracked by war and defeat.
I read this book by journalist John Reed mainly because of Robert Kaplan's copious references to it in his excellent book Balkan Ghosts, which was written about 75 years later. Since Reed's book is about the First World War, and Kaplan's is about the prelude to the Yugoslav Civil War of the 1990's, one conclusion might be that little had changed in the region over the previous three quarters of a century. There's a lot of truth in that. Ethnically, religiously, culturally and geographically fragmented, with a long history of violent clashes between competing empires and nations, the south-eastern region of Europe -- the Balkans -- is blood-soaked even by the bloody standards of that continent.
Reed's book is almost that of a curious traveler and not so much that of a journalist. He has a telling eye for detail, loves political gossip, has an adventurous spirit and tells a good story, but he's not much of one for deep analysis of what was actually going on. This is curious, since he was a communist, and you would have expected him to look for deep underlying social forces. Instead, he leans far too heavily on sweeping ethnic prejudices -- Romanians are charming but shifty, Serbians are brave and open, Bulgarians are life-loving and welcoming, Jews are sinister, Turks are lazy, Greeks are sly, and so forth. In this, he was undoubtedly a product of his class, his times and his own national culture, to say nothing of his own personality, but it does make his explanations of events both dated and untrustworthy.
That said, Reed has some superb accounts of World War I in that part of the world. It's hard to grasp the scale of destruction and suffering and profound impoverishment across a vast sweep of the region -- in Romania, Serbia, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Turkey ... -- unless you read a first-hand account like Reed's. He was a man with acute powers of observation and deep reserves of compassion, whatever his other limitations. Having just visited much of the region myself, I found it fascinating to read his descriptions of the war in cities I recently visited, such as Belgrade, Sofia and Istanbul. If you're interested in the Balkans and its history, you'll find this book a good read.
I read this book by journalist John Reed mainly because of Robert Kaplan's copious references to it in his excellent book Balkan Ghosts, which was written about 75 years later. Since Reed's book is about the First World War, and Kaplan's is about the prelude to the Yugoslav Civil War of the 1990's, one conclusion might be that little had changed in the region over the previous three quarters of a century. There's a lot of truth in that. Ethnically, religiously, culturally and geographically fragmented, with a long history of violent clashes between competing empires and nations, the south-eastern region of Europe -- the Balkans -- is blood-soaked even by the bloody standards of that continent.
Reed's book is almost that of a curious traveler and not so much that of a journalist. He has a telling eye for detail, loves political gossip, has an adventurous spirit and tells a good story, but he's not much of one for deep analysis of what was actually going on. This is curious, since he was a communist, and you would have expected him to look for deep underlying social forces. Instead, he leans far too heavily on sweeping ethnic prejudices -- Romanians are charming but shifty, Serbians are brave and open, Bulgarians are life-loving and welcoming, Jews are sinister, Turks are lazy, Greeks are sly, and so forth. In this, he was undoubtedly a product of his class, his times and his own national culture, to say nothing of his own personality, but it does make his explanations of events both dated and untrustworthy.
That said, Reed has some superb accounts of World War I in that part of the world. It's hard to grasp the scale of destruction and suffering and profound impoverishment across a vast sweep of the region -- in Romania, Serbia, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Turkey ... -- unless you read a first-hand account like Reed's. He was a man with acute powers of observation and deep reserves of compassion, whatever his other limitations. Having just visited much of the region myself, I found it fascinating to read his descriptions of the war in cities I recently visited, such as Belgrade, Sofia and Istanbul. If you're interested in the Balkans and its history, you'll find this book a good read.
March 23, 2020
Любопитен и откровен пътепис за случвалото се в периода април - ноември 1915г. на Балканите и Източна Европа. Младият американски журналист описва Сърбия, бореща се с ужасяваща епидемия от тиф, Полша, западните провинции на Русия и Константинопол, изключително сурово критикува Румъния и жителите на Букурещ, за да достигне неусетно и до България, която определя като люлката на Балканите. Илюстрациите в изданието на британския карикатурист Бордман Робинсън, който го придружава през цялото време в тази обиколка, са допълнителен бонус. Книгата заслужава да се прочете.
January 8, 2020
In the publisher’s forward, the publisher noted that he’d omitted some parts of the book for various reasons. Too bad as it did not help the flow. That said, while I enjoyed the book and found parts interesting, it’s clearly not as good as Ten Days that Shook the World. Also, I was excited when I saw the book available on Amazon, but what I got was a copy, probably scanned, of the actual book — two copied pages per actual page, impossible to read without a magnifying glass.
March 19, 2025
Goodclearly written history and travelogue
Mr Reed writes well and with details but does not tell much of a story. The descriptive travelogue is worth the read even without much of a story. You can almost picture the scenery as he travels through eastern Europe in his attempt to reach the front lines of the war.
Mr Reed writes well and with details but does not tell much of a story. The descriptive travelogue is worth the read even without much of a story. You can almost picture the scenery as he travels through eastern Europe in his attempt to reach the front lines of the war.
January 14, 2024
Excellent travelogue of Eastern Europe during WW1. Reed is a prejudiced bastard but a good writer with vivid descriptions of people and places.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 9, 2025
Brace yourself for rampant antisemitism before reading this otherwise excellent book.
February 12, 2017
Despite the title this is not an account of military movements, strategic and diplomatic plans but a totally delightful, engrossing reprint of the account of 2 American reporters' travels during the first years of WW I (obviously before the U.S. entered in 1917). It reads like a social history, a sociological investigation but its greatest attraction is the skeptical appraisal (as only journalists can be skeptical by nature) of life inside the war-torn countries of the Eastern front. Even today we rail at bureaucracy - its convoluted, multi-layered, terminally slow, inexplicable, unaccountable life but Reed and Robinson's description of their entanglement in the Russian version is mind-blowingly funny. The last quarter of the book is more a description of Russian society and politics in general rather than the travelogue that makes up the bulk of the book. A funny (sometimes hilarious) read.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews