There are four parts to this text: "Sociological," "Cosmological," "Philosophical," and "Civilization." The first part is a history of how ideas, especially moral ideas, have influenced the progress of civilization. Whitehead is by training mathematician and by nature a philosopher, not a historian. As a consequence, he covers a great deal of historical ground at a high level of generality which, in Whitehead's case, I consider a virtue. He has a beautiful, long-term perspective; his account of the transition from a world in which slavery was taken for granted to one in which it is no longer legitimate, and the role that the ideas of Platonism and Christianity played in that 2500 year transition, makes me quite optimistic about the long-term possibility of humane progress in the world.
I describe the first section in depth because it is among the more accessible pieces of Whitehead's writing. The remainder of the book calls upon his unique metaphysical perspective to some extent, and is thus more of a struggle for the casual reader. It, too, is beautiful and valuable for those who are willing to learn how to read Whitehead, but it is not easy. Buy the book for the first part, then if you like Whitehead's highly idiosyncratic view of reality, train yourself to read the rest of the book.
Personally, although Whitehead has fallen out of favor of academic philosophers for most of this century, I think that his work is more likely to be read 200 years from now than are most other works written this century. Whitehead is definitely thinking of the big picture with a certain serene timelessness. Far more people should be exposed to his 20th century articulation of the eternal search for the True, the Good, and the Beautiful (and the Adventure).
