Instruct: Classify Amazon reviews into positive or negative sentiment
Query: Fast Read

This is a VERY fast read. As a lot of the other reviews have noted, Cantor leaves a lot out. Which is just fine. I don't think his intent was to write the definitive text of John of Gaunt and the era he lived in. That would have required several volumes and only serious academics would have been interested in it. Cantor is more interested in writing stuff that sells as opposed to writing the absolute best history on the market. A lot of good writers (Barbara Tuchman, Lord Norwich) do this and I don't have a problem with it. Historical studies will never reach a wider audience if books aren't written to engage the public. Call it popular history. While this book struggles at times to engage its audience, it's meant to be a very broad overview. The purpose was to show that Gaunt lived in at the end of an era and the beginning of a new era - it wasn't to explain in detail the socioeconomic, military-political realities of Western Europe during John of Gaunt's lifetime.