The historical events laid out in this book, which took up maybe half the book, were an interesting bit of the past that I hadn't know about before. 

Unfortunately, the half of the book focused on historical context got sidetracked from a basic explanation of classism, racism and such, to an obsession with the flaws of the time period. I'm confident some of the ire is deserved, but there were definitely complaints that were overblown based on the facts given.