This was a required reading for a course I'm taking in Sociology. I really found the general idea of the purpose of the book great knowledge. Yet, I think that it is written so dry and repeats some information over and over. I think honestly, its not the content of the book thats bad its just the way its written. Its just like sentence after sentence of information from other sources and doesnt go deep into events. Just briefly talks about an event and moves onto another one with out making the reader interested in whats going on. A real snoozer.