This a pretty good introduction to two interesting philosophical movements which emerged from World War I. Although it's not really a "very short" introduction and it isn't particularly easy to digest, I still found it to be a nice, basic history of the two movements and how they compare and contrast with each other.
As for the content of the book itself, I was quite fascinated not just with the movements but with the various personalities which took part in them. Dada and Surrealism and more than just simple movements exclusive to the art world, they are ways of living life. In fact, both movements in some form or another tried to break down the barrier between art and our everyday lives. Both Dadaism and Surrealism stressed the importance of our symbolic attachment to objects, but both of them did it in different ways. I was particularly struck by the idea of "objective chance," that our chance encounters between two seemingly incongruent objects are illuminating experiences which have the power to reveal our subconscious desires, which is why Surrealists would commonly go shopping at flea markets. On the other hand, Dadaists such as Duchamp would make "ready-made" sculptures out of everyday objects, as a way to both parody and question the accepted definitions of art, especially in a world of mechanization and mass-production. I also found the way the movements treated Freud and the psychoanalysts to be fascinating. They treated the subconscious as this double-world, this omnipotent sub-layer which guides us through life, more so than reason. In fact, it's humans trust in the abilities of their reason that Surrealists thought caused World War I. The surrealist way of making art, "psychic automatism," was a way to illuminate this double-world, which Apollinaire called the surreal. By being more tapped in to our subconscious, we could come to understand the absurdities in our waking reality, and in a way, come to transcend them. I think Dada and Surrealism can best be summed up as bridges between two realities, between art and the everyday, between dream and waking life.
I could say about a million more things about these two movements (more so Surrealism) but I think I'll refrain for now. Other than that, good book.