I'm pretty surprised this book has not been reviewed here for the reason that it is all the things my title-heading suggests. Soames begins this work with a review of Moore, and it is appropriate that he does so. One of the lessons that Soames tries to bring out with the history of analytic philosophy is the Moorean idea that common sense wins out over any philosophical theory that produces consequences incompatible with common sense (e.g., that there are bodies). Following is a review of Russell, particularly his theory of descriptions, his logical atomism, his reduction of math to logic; followed is work on Wittgenstein, particularly his Tractatus; the positivists; and finally a look at Quine (esp. his famous "Two Dogmas").

This book is not for the philosophical novice, esp. the section on Russell's reduction of mathematics. But, it is for advanced undergrad students who will be able to grasp most of the material, and those already established scholars. Soames not only does a nice job reproducing the arguments and the historical context in which the arguments are set, esp. in a clear manner, but he gives what appears to be cogent responses to the material covered, often trying to recreate the original arguments in order to make them better.

I think this is a great work to have handy if working through the early 20th century pieces; and I found it especially helpful in trying to figure out Wittgenstein. I highly recommend this work as a supplementary piece for teaching the history of analytic philsophy, or the chapters on Quine or Moore (if, say, teaching an epistemology course). I wish I had this available to myself as an undergrad and plan on requiring it of students when I have the opportunity.