First published in 1946, <EM>History of Western Philosophy</EM> went on to become the best-selling philosophy book of the twentieth century. A dazzlingly ambitious project, it remains unchallenged to this day as the ultimate introduction to Western philosophy. Providing a sophisticated overview of the ideas that have perplexed people from time immemorial, it is ''long on wit, intelligence and curmudgeonly scepticism'', as the <EM>New York Times</EM> noted, and it is this, coupled with the sheer brilliance of its scholarship, that has made Russell''s <EM>History of Western Philosophy</EM> one of the most important philosophical works of all time.