I think I will be reading this until I die. It's full of fascinating stuff, but fairly jumps all over the place. Obviously. As my European history isn't too bad I've decided I don't need to read it chronologically and will henceforth dip in here and there for the rest of my life. This seems to suit the book better.

Not blown away by the translation. It's certainly able, but it doesn't flow and it makes it rather a slog.

Edit: not finished but put aside for now, as I'm, erm, In Europe, with limited suitcase capacity. The ww2 stuff was riveting.