COMMENT:A roughly chronological book on continental philosophy, it starts with Kant and ends with the contemporary postmodernists. Its treatment is sympathetic, so a skeptic can satisfy a desire for intellectual honesty, yet it is short enough not to intimidate the novice. West prefers paraphrase to lengthy quotation, which spares the reader some of the notorious hyperbole and obscurantism of continental philosophy. Overall, a useful introduction, in a matter of fact style, to the philosophical tradition that has lead to postmodernism.
