I have suffered through about half of this book. The author gets way too bogged down recounting the stories of people that he has happened to find along the way that bear only the most distant relationship to the history he tries to capture. In many instances, the stories are merely filler bearing no relationship to the matter at hand. In most instances, the people interviewed are so many generations removed and their knowledge so sketchy that they are irrelevant. If you have a serious interest in this area, look elsewhere.