A hard book to give a rating. It is a scholarly work which begins each chapter with a section on sources and includes discussions of who thinks what and why with regard to many aspects of the history. The book was originally published in 1940, with the third edition revised in 1969. Extensive references are given, many of them esoteric sources (though increasingly accessible in English via the internet). All this makes for slow reading. This book is more for the would-be specialist than the general reader like me. ( )