Nathaniel Smithfield is a ten-year-old boy living with his family in Boston, Massachusetts in 1768 when he first starts to witness the drama happening in the city around him. Tension heats up between those who are loyal to the British crown, like Nathaniel's father, and those who believe the people of America are being treated unfairly. Over the following years as he grows into a teenager, Nathaniel must decide where his own beliefs lie, and how far he will go to fight for them, no matter the consequences.

A History of Communications advances a new theory of media that explains the origins and impact of different forms of communication speech, writing, print, electronic devices, and the Internet on human history in the long term. New media are pulled into widespread use by broad historical trends and these media, once in widespread use, push social institutions and beliefs in predictable directions. This view allows us to see for the first time what is truly new about the Internet, what is not, and where it is taking us."