The book is exactly what it says - a short history on the country since prehistoric times. It was translated from the Dutch by someone who is pretty good, but not perfect, with English. While some things were typos, others were clearly lost in translation, leaving me scratching my head a few times. Other than that, my only serious objection is the lack of maps. The author assumes you're going to know where all these place names are actually situated. There was one map circa 1300 but it was pretty small and I had a hard time making out the names. Still, for a crash course on The Netherlands, it's very good. 3 stars. ( )