The title really grabbed me on this one. I am an avid museum-goer and was interested in the author's premise- how did Natural History museums get to be the instituations they are today? Asma writes this conversational book extremely well. He is often as surprised as you as he finds new people to interview and unveils the next phase of history. There were many times I would be thinking "wow that is crazy" and literally the next sentence would be "I know sounds crazy doesn't it". A background in evolutionary theory, comparative biology, or natural history would be good but not necessary as Asma does a great job explaining the players and their theories/methods/contributions. This book was a favorite car-ride read-aloud that we were sad to finish. It will be in my regular rotation of books for a long time.