One more thought: if you are interested in twentieth century analytic philosophy, Scott Soames' two-volume history provides clear and reasonably reliable interpretations of the history of some of the movements within that tradition. Even though Soames does not provide a full or completely satisfactory history of analytic philosophy--his central narrative focuses narrowly on those treatments of the analytic/synthetic, necessary/contingent, and apriori/aposteriori distinctions that are most closely connected to Saul Kripke's celebrated work in Naming and Necessity , and the emphasis he places on the historical significance of Kripke's achievements creates some some significant gaps and oversimplifications--these texts are extremely engaging and reading them can be a good way to gain sophisticated introductory knowledge about some vital figures in recent philosophical history: Soames, Scott, Philosophical Analysis in the Twentieth Century, Volume 1: The Dawn of Analysis . (Princeton, NJ:...

Russell's book is lively, but not that reliable. The best one-volume history of philosophy I've found is A Brief History of Western Philosophy by Anthony Kenny, which is accessible but sophisticated and concise yet comprehensive. Unlike Russell, Kenny develops develop a sophisticated historiography that draws helpfully from wider cultural and historical events and trends. This gives his text a much more interestingly nuanced view than is normal in introductory histories of philosophy. The book is entertaining and deeply informative -- and I consider it the very best of its genre! Here's an Amazon link (note -- the text I have mind is the one published by Blackwell in 1998; Kenny has published other histories of philosophy since then that I don't like as much): http://www.amazon.com/Brief-History-Western-Philosophy/dp/0631201327

I agree with Peter that one need to specify exact criteria for progressbefore making the sort of assessment that you describe. All suchcritiera and assessments will be controversial because our knowledge ofourselves and our histories is limited and controversial, but this byno way means that producing and rationally defending such assessmentsis worthless -- on the contrary, they can be extremely useful andinteresting. Thepolitical theorist George Kateb provides an interesting--andfascinating--example of how to assess human progress in the modern age.In his recent collection of essays. Patriotism and Other Mistakes (Yale University Press, 2006), Kateb assesses human progresses on thebasis of a richly sophistcated conception of human and argues that theUnited States Constitution represents a significant achievement in thesupport of human dignity, which he defines (again, in a richlysophisticated and fascinating way) in terms of rights-basedindividualism. While Kateb's criteria for progress and...