This book works best as a sort of 30,000 foot view of history with the year 1917 as a fulcrum on which swings the trajectory of multiple nations and millions of people. That's good because I believe it was the author's goal. It is an entertaining read and contains many fascinating anecdotes about Woodrow Wilson and Vladimir Lenin, who are the book's main focus. I took one star away because such close focus on leaders isn't to my taste and I felt some of the close focus on the minutiae of their lives left me wondering about some larger questions vis-a-vis the historical events happening around them. Definitely worth a read, it's not overly academic in its language.