Universally considered to be the founder of the field of communication studies, Wilbur Schramm left unfinished this final work on his personal perspective of the field. In it, he acknowledged the seminal contributions to communication of four inspirational social scientists whose theories and methods laid the foundation for the discipline: Harold D Lasswell, Paul F Lazarsfeld, Kurt Lewin and Carl I Hovland.

This collection has now been posthumously supplemented by the editors, Steven H Chaffee and Everett M Rogers, whose contribution documents the history of the spread of the subject among universities in the United States.