I would say that ultimately this is closer to a 3.5 stars, and that my rating is heavily informed by the fact that I read this in 30 minute bursts over the course of a number of weeks. I will say Barr is extremely thorough and so attentive to differences between the different nations and groups she talks about; she doesn't generalize, and she really digs in deeply to the relationships that the Spanish had with each group. Sometimes it kind of all melded together and I wasn't sure what was happening any more, but it felt consistent enough that I understood the general arc of her argument fairly well. Would love to revisit this in a classroom or other group setting! ( )