Book Summary

Samuel II, mayor of Citadel, a Blue Ridge Mountain enclave, is determined to end the city''s wars with devolved tribal society, Freedomland. He sends troubled but insightful city archivist Jakob History to a bartering meet-up, hoping an interview with tribal leader Abraham Trapper might help further peaceful relations. Instead, the encounter leads Jakob to reexamine America''s past, to a danger-filled glimpse of Abraham''s tribal life, and to a final, fateful encounter with Abraham, these revealing human strengths and weaknesses that are at the basis of civilization itself.

2090 A.D. - The America nation has collapsed, and its remnants have been at war for a half-century. Samuel II, mayor of Citadel, a Blue Ridge Mountain enclave, is determined to end the city''s wars with a devolved tribal society called Freedomland. He sends troubled but insightful city archivist Jakob History to a bartering meet-up, hoping an interview with tribal leader Abraham Trapper might help further peaceful relations. Instead, the encounter leads Jakob to reexamine America''s past. Soon, Jonathan, Jakob''s mentor, exposes the archivist to a surprising link with Abraham, which seems to set Jakob at odds with Citadel. But when Samuel leads Jakob to a danger-filled glimpse of Abraham''s tribal life, the archivist''s preconceptions of both cultures come crashing down. Finally, a last, fateful encounter between Jakob and Abraham lays bare human strengths and weaknesses that are at the basis of civilization itself.