Christine L. Nystrom was a professor of media and communication in the Media Ecology program at New York University for over 30 years. She is regarded as one of the founders of that field, alongside her colleague Neil Postman.

Acknowledgments - Introduction - Prologue - Language: The Monkeys' Tale - The Children's Tale - From Signal to Speech - Language and the Birth of Self - Narrative - Metaphor, Explanation, and Tales of the Self - Connections: Tribal Tales - Transitions and Transformations: The City, the Self, and the Sacred - Sounds of Silence: The Evolution of Writing - Kings, Consciousness, and Intimations of Immortality - Selected Bibliography - On Narrative - On Technopoly - Alternative Narratives - Final Tidbit: Nystrom's Nuggets of Wisdom - Reading List - Addendum: Remembrances.