An American scholar of philosophy working outside the walls of academe, Reed explores the early history of analytic philosophy, defined as that practiced during the third quarter of the 20th century by such figures as Kripke, Davidson, and Quine. The basic story he tells is that analytic philosophy was a reaction to Immanuel Kant's (1724-1804) critical philosophy, and the foundations of which were laid by Gottlob Frege (1848-1925) along with the logical notation that is used today. The study may have served as his 2000 Ph.D. dissertation at the University of Minnesota. Annotation ©2008 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)