Agreed. I thought Ferguson's book would be interesting when I saw it at the bookstore last year, but quickly decided that it wasn't worth it after checking out

Agreed. I thought Ferguson's book would be interesting when I saw it at the bookstore last year, but quickly decided that it wasn't worth it after checking out reviews. I don't have links to specific reviews I read, but my impression of the author is that he's turned away from research in favour of writing popular and shallow books on overly broad subjects. Apparently a couple of his earlier works were quite well regarded, but since then he's been dumping out a book a year.