George F. Kennan, an American diplomat and historian who opposed to Bolshevism and is best known as “the father of containment,” praised the book. “Reed’s account of the events of that time rises above every other contemporary record for its literary power, its penetration, its command of detail” and would be “remembered when all others are forgotten.” Kennan saw it as “a reflection of blazing honesty and a purity of idealism that did unintended credit to the American society that produced him, the merits of which he himself understood so poorly.” In 1999, "The New York Times" reported New York University’s “Top 100 Works of Journalism,” works published in the United States in the 20th century, placed "Ten Days that Shook the World" in seventh position. Project director Mitchell Stephens explains the judges’ decision: