To get a sense of react, take a look at this link: http://btholt.github.io/complete-intro-to-react/
To figure out what the heck is going on with webpack, and how you can supercharge it: https://medium.com/@rajaraodv/webpack-the-confusing-parts-58712f8fcad9#.ol1oml5de
For reference while you're setting up your project: https://github.com/erikras/react-redux-universal-hot-example