5 stars - a no brainer; the decision to give it 5 stars m, not the book😀 ( )

This book did not start well for me. Tightly bound, I do not like the fussy typeface and the use of the European number seven - 7 with a cross bar. Poor proof reading means there are already too many typographical errors in the first chapters.

Once I got over this disappointment, I then found another - more evidence of poor editing and proof reading. Some of the sentences are far too long, such that the reader has to go back over the same words having lost one's way - sentences that are six or seven lines long are not uncommon, it seems, for this writer!

Anyway, the first chapter, entitled Events Before 1940, was interesting. Trying to ignore long sentences, typeface and typesetting errors, I enjoyed the book and learned a fair amount.