The Revolution That Wasn't

The definitive story of the GameStop short squeeze and the real architects - and winners - of a rigged game.

'Jakab adeptly skewers the popular but dangerously wrong narrative of Reddit's David thumping Wall Street's Goliath' Robin Wigglesworth, author of Trillions

Wall Street Journal columnist Spencer Jakab tells the dizzying story of how, in January 2021, a motley crew of retail traders on Reddit's r/wallstreetbets forum seemingly achieved the impossible - bringing some of the biggest, richest players in finance to their knees.

And yet, as this book shows, the GameStop short squeeze, which made headlines around the world, ultimately exposed a powerful truth: what appeared to be a watershed moment - a revolution that stripped the ultra-powerful hedge funds of their market influence - only increased the chances of the house winning.

The Revolution That Wasn't is a gripping account of how a group of small-time investors took on the might of Wall Street, and nearly won.

'An unputdownable post-mortem of the freakiest tale of pandemic-age finance' Gian Volpicelli, Senior Editor, Wired

'The saga of GameStop and other meme stocks is revealed with the skill of a thrilling whodunit' Burton G. Malkiel, author of A Random Walk Down Wall Street