The book should be read only by people who have good amount of interest and some prior knowledge about international relations. It gives a complete account of the the state of international polity from the late 19th century: From colonial period to world wars to cold wars to present us-china ''pre cold war'' phase. It sometimes fails to explain events in details bit maintains it fluency throughout the book. Neither leaving any important topic nor extensively focusing on any one of them . And yes, it is not exactly from any one one countrys perspective. I guess it is free from any major bias.