Sometimes the best way to become informed on a subject is to read its history. Historicism's continual pull comes from its ability to provide a great and needed contextual understanding of a topic. This can partly explain the trend of works received with great receptivity in various disciplines possessing the title 'a history of'. Take Bertrand Russell's History of Western Philosophy as just one example. With this in mind, The Idea of the Brain provides a brilliant understanding of how our concepts of the mind have evolved historically, whilst interweaving modern thinking regarding the brain and where the future for neuroscience research may lie.
A book in modern neuroscience can sometimes become outdated, not in core concepts - these are for the most part fundamentally agreed upon - but in discussions of new research, due to the pace at which neuroscience research occurs. This book is not one of those, exactly due to its historic approach. Taking the view of Hegel, our need to understand ourselves comes in part from our history, and so what better way to achieve this than to combine history with the organ that dictates what and who we are.