Designed to introduce students to the academic discipline of Communication, this text describes the scope and methods of communication studies, and sketches its history from the work of the early sophists to contemporary research efforts. "Boxing Plato's Shadow" helps explain why, despite its long and venerable history of scholarly endeavor, Communication continues to struggle for recognition of its legitimate place in the academy. Throughout, the authors emphasize the field's durability over more than two millennia and the merits of multiple systematic approaches to the study of communication.