RUSSELL, Bertrand.

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History of Western Philosophy and its Connection with Political and Social Circumstances from the Earliest Times to the Present Day. First UK edition of Russell's famously comprehensive philosophical survey, ranging from the Orphism of ancient Greece to the logical positivism of the present day. Russell states that "there are many histories of philosophy, but none of them, so far as I know, has quite the purpose that I have set myself" (p. 5). His claim to originality was his historical contextualization of the lives and ideas of those who lived decades, centuries, and thousands of years apart, arguing that the course of philosophy is intimately tied to that of wider human civilization.The History was developed from lectures delivered at the Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia during the Second World War: it was in part conceived to explain to Russell's audience the exact nature of the civilization for which they were fighting. To meet the War Economy Standard, the dust jackets were printed on the back of surplus wartime maps. The present example shows what was at the time the border between Poland and Germany, now Poland, with locations named in both German and Polish. The first American edition was published the previous year as A History of Western Philosophy by Simon & Schuster; this edition revised that text.

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