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[1] For the place of analytic philosophy within broader post-WWII intellectual currents, see the illuminating essay by Carl E. Schorske, "The New Rigorism in the Human Sciences, 1940-1960," Daedelus 126 (Winter 1997): 289-310.
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[2] I am often asked by students and junior faculty for a "ranking" of philosophical journals. What appears in the text is a reasonably uncontroversial listings of leading journals. One somewhat useful measure of journal prestige may be had by examining where articles chosen as "the ten best" of their year by The Philosopher's Annual have appeared. From 1978 through 2001—in other words, 240 articles—here is the pedigree of the chosen articles: Journal of Philosophy (47); Philosophical Review (23); Noûs (20); Philosophy & Public Affairs (17); Mind (16); Ethics (11); Philosophy of Science (10); Philosophical Studies (8); Journal of Philosophical Logic (6); Philosophical Perspectives (6), Synthèse (5). Note, of course, that Journal of Philosophy and Philosophical Studies publish many more articles each year than most of these other journals, which are quarterlies. European Journal of Philosophy, which is less than a decade old, has already had 2 articles selected. Other respected professional journals, by (fairly) common consensus, would also include Philosophical Topics, British Journal for the Philosophy of Science, The Monist, Analysis, Phronesis (for ancient philosophy), Pacific Philosophical Quarterly, Australasian Journal of Philosophy, Canadian Journal of Philosophy, and Journal of the History of Philosophy. (Because of the now extraordinary cost of subscribing to Synthèse, this distinguished journal is likely to become less influential: many top research libraries can no longer afford to subscribe to it.) There are also certain highly specialized journals in fields like history of philosophy, aesthetics, jurisprudence, semantics, and logic that are reputable, for example: History of Philosophy Quarterly, Journal of Aesthetics & Art Criticism, Legal Theory, Biology & Philosophy, Apeiron,and Linguistics & Philosophy, among others.
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[3] Presses that are quite reputable overall—like Yale or Johns Hopkins or California—are not particularly notable in philosophy. Students should not think, however, that any book published by the top philosophy presses is necessarily good; far from it. Harvard, for example, will publish certain books simply because of the celebrity of the author or because they are part of the "inner circle" of Harvard faculty and their friends. The Cambridge "Modern European Philosophy" series, which under its prior editor, Raymond Geuss, set the standard for high-quality scholarship in this field, has declined markedly in quality since his departure; Cambridge is now one of the weaker publishers in post-Kantian Continental philosophy (with, of course, occasional exceptions). All the presses mentioned have brought out some real disappointments. But the fact remains that, overall, these presses produce the best philosophy, and philosophers at a genuinely top department will frequently publish with these presses.
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