The topic is something I'm very interested in, but the book itself wasn't successful in maintaining my interest because the delivery felt clunky. The information was presented in dense and chaotic bursts, which made it difficult to follow if you aren't already well-versed in Jewish history during Roman occupation. Yet somehow I get the feeling that if you were already knowledgeable about this topic, the book wouldn't necessarily give you anything new to think about. So I'm not sure who this is for. Perhaps that changes in later chapters, and if I weren't already exhausted taking care of a teething baby I would have pushed through, but I think I would rather just find other books discussing similar topics.