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Reds tells the global history of communism, going beyond the turmoil of the 20th century, and exploring the origins of communist ideas, movements, and regimes.

It tells the whole story – from the first barricade to the last chunk of the Berlin Wall. Not flinching from either the heroism or the horrors.

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 acquiescence in mass murder, repression and social atomisation. A fact whose legacy – unfortunately – is alive and kicking in both Russia and China today.

Reds argues that the desire to live without hierarchy and property is an impulse deeply rooted in our human nature. It traces the origins of communal Utopias, and their transformation into a programme of action for the working class during the French Revolution. It shows how Leninism defeated all rival ideologies because – for a time – it seemed to work.

And it explains why, in the end, the Soviet and Maoist systems were defeated by something as prosaic as truth.

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 capitalism 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.

To a new generation asking whether it’s possible to replace capitalism with something better, the political purpose of Reds is to answer: not like this.

As we head into a dangerous world disorder, where China and Russia threaten the world’s democracies and a new, authoritarian left strives to supplant social democracy, liberalism and anarchism, this is not just a history book but a political intervention.

To stop ourselves repeating the horrors of the 20th century, we need to learn why so many people were prepared to let them happen.