The history of linguistics in this book is at once disciplined, informative and readable. It contains an absolute wealth of very clearly presented linguistic analyses which enable the reader to get a real handle on how the very large cast of actors assembled here did their daily linguistics. It should become for many an indispensable compact tool of reference and a source book. 
Gordon Taylor, Monash University, Australian Journal of Linguistics, Vol. 29, No. 3 (September 2009)

Allan has given us an excellent and well-documented account of western linguistics from the Greeks (and sometimes before them) until current trends on the topic such as pragmatics and cognitive linguistics.
Historiographia Linguistics XXXV:1/2