Assembly Hall

If you spend some time really looking at the ship stats and bonuses, you'll get a good feel for their design principles and, more importantly, the exceptions to those principles. You're far better off drudging through the individual ships and getting to know them a bit than reading an overview...because the overview can't tell you everything, and then you'll be missing crucial information when you need it.

There are generally 2 ship "attack philosophies" per race with a 3rd one added in the T2 lineup. You can generally figure it out by reading the description of the ship in question, the company that made it, and reviewing their stats/bonuses.
For your benefit, I'll do a brief general run-down (that may or may not be entirely correct because exceptions ALWAYS apply)...

Gallente:
Primary Attack "Philosophy" : "Up-close-and-personal" combat (i.e. think "shotgun" style combat)
Secondary Attack "Philosophy": Drones
Defense "Philosophy": Armor tanks
Added T2 Attack "Philosophy": Missile combat (of all types)

Caldari:
Primary Attack "Philosophy": "Long range" gun combat (i.e. "sniper" combat)
Secondary Attack "Philosophy": Missile combat (variable range)
Defense "Philosophy": Shield tanks
Added T2 Attack "Philosophy": Not quite sure here. The T2 line-up mostly consists of "enhanced" versions of all the Caldari "philosophies."

Amarr:
Primary Attack "Philosophy": High damage lasers (variable range)
Secondary Attack "Philosophy": Drones / none
Defense "Philosophy": Armor tanks
Added T2 Attack "Philosophy": Close range missile combat

Minmitar:
Primary Attack "Philosophy": Guns (either rapid firing machine guns with limited range or "crater-making mortars" with slow rate of fire and large-ish range)
Secondary Attack "Philosophy": Missile combat (of all types)
Defense "Philosophy": Shield or Armor tanks and/or speed (note: I include "speed" as Minmitar ships are very well known for being mobile and because it's seen as compensation for having comparatively "weaker" tanks to the other races).
Added T2 Attack "Philosophy": Again... note quite sure. As with the Caldari, the Minmitar T2 line mostly appears to be consisting of "enhanced" versions of their aforementioned "philosophies."


Pirate faction ships take the best (and sometimes worst) of the above racial ship lines whose respective skills you need to use them.

Angels: best qualities of the Minmitar ship lines (speed and mobility) with the "punch" of the Gallente
Serpentis: best quality (note how that term is singular) of the Gallente (i.e. gank) with the Ewar of the Minmitar (webs)
Guristas: best shield tanking abilities of the Caldari with the versatility of Gallente dronboats
Blood Raiders: these guys earn a special distinction by having the best of 2 races' Ewar abilities (energy neutralizers and webs) while having above-average Amarrian tanks and so-so Amarrian DPS.

The two posts above me are covering pretty much everything. Also if you read the information given on the EVE-O website about the races and going slowly through each type of class for each race in game the image about philosophy for each ship of each race and their mixed or unmixed flavors will be complete.


[later edit]
Also out of curiosity I read the link provided above. Pretty nice sums it all although most of it is made up it is a good addition to the lore :) and most important the explanation behind the different designs is awesomely compliant to the philosophy and actual use of each ship
[/later edit]

Brutor tribe philosophy: stick as much firepower on it as you can! Forget about armour, it just slows us down!

Caldari philosophy: throw things at it from long range, and remember to put up your shields!

Amarr philosophy: stand on the rock that God gave you, casting the rays of God's truth at them

Gallente philosophy: Delegate the tasks to the drones. Alternately, get in real close and intimate, then hit them with a big rock