Best history of philosophy? My recommendation

W. T. Jones’s A History of Western Philosophy is excellent on all the major philosophers and integrates them well into historical context. He’s also a clear writer, which can be rare in philosophy. Also, one does not have to read the philosophers in historical order, as the presentations are self-contained and/or context-established along the way. Some editions are expensive, though less-expensive used copies seem plentiful.

Volume I: The Classical Mind.

Volume II: The Medieval Mind.

Volume III: Hobbes to Hume.

Volume IV: Kant and the Nineteenth Century.

Volume V: The Twentieth Century to Wittgenstein and Sartre.

I’ve also read all or most of Copleston’s, Windelband’s, and Russell’s histories of philosophy, and I recommend them in that descending order. In audio form, Peikoff’s history of philosophy is one that I learned much from during my undergraduate days.