Sited on NPR with interview of authors between 10 and 15 years ago (?).  They describe Jesus in he context of the Roman political power and the strain on the economies via taxes etc. and how Jesus was a counter culture.  Also, I remember they assert that it was highly unlikely that anyone was allowed to remove his body from the cross and they describe the sect of Christians who lived in Jerusalem who saw Jesus not as divine but as a prophet and how they were all killed off in the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans.