Read it for an Ethics Class. It is primarily a history book that begins with Aristotle and drones on until reaching the Twentieth Century. Every other sentence is a reference of some sort clogging the page with way too many author's name and years that loosing track of what you're reading is far too easy. The book is really very informative, but you need to ignore the constant references in order to see this, otherwise is cumbersome. If it hadn't been because is was the class' textbook I wouldn't have finished it.