Research Catalog

Title

PR! : a social history of spin / Stuart Ewen.

Author

Ewen, Stuart.

Publication

New York : Basic Books, 1996.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Holdings

Details

Description

xv, 480 pages : illustrations; 25 cm

Summary

• The early years of the twentieth century were a difficult period for Big Business. Corporate monopolies, the brutal exploitation of labor, and unscrupulous business practices were the target of blistering attacks from a muckraking press and an increasingly resentful public. Corporate giants were no longer able to operate free from the scrutiny of the masses.
• "The crowd is now in the saddle," warned Ivy Lee, one of America's first corporate public relations men. "The people now rule. We have substituted for the divine right of kings, the divine right of the multitude." Unless corporations developed means for counteracting public disapproval, he cautioned, their future would be in peril. Lee's words heralded the dawn of an era in which corporate image management was to become a paramount feature of American society.
• Some corporations, such as AT&T, responded inventively to the emergency. Others, like Standard Oil of New Jersey (known today as Exxon), continued to fumble the PR ball for decades. The Age of Public Relations had begun.
• .
• In this long-awaited, pathbreaking book, Stuart Ewen tells the story of the Age unfolding: the social conditions that brought it about; the ideas that inspired the strategies of public relations specialists; the growing use of images as tools of persuasion; and, finally, the ways that the rise of public relations interacted with the changing dynamics of public life itself.
• He takes us on a vivid journey into the thinking of PR practitioners - from Edward Bernays to George Gallup - exploring some of the most significant campaigns to mold the public mind, and revealing disturbing trends that have persisted to the present day. Using previously confidential sources, and with the aid of dozens of illustrations from the past hundred years, Ewen sheds unsparing light on the contours and contradictions of American democracy on the threshold of a new millennium.

Subject

• Public relations > United States

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (p. 449-470) and index.

Contents

Pt. 1. Stagecraft and Truth in an Age of Public Relations. 1. Visiting Edward Bernays. 2. Dealing in Reality: Protocols of Persuasion -- Pt. 2. "The Crowd Is in the Saddle": Progressive Politics and the Rise of Public Relations. 3. Truth Happens: An Age of Publicity Begins. 4. Controlling Chaos. 5. "Educate the Public!" 6. House of Truth -- Pt. 3. Changing Rhetorics of Persuasion. 7. Social Psychology and the Quest for the Public Mind. 8. Unseen Engineers: Biography of an Idea. 9. Modern Pipelines of Persuasion. 10. Optical Illusions -- Pt. 4. Battles for the "American Way" 11. Silver Chains and Friendly Giants. 12. The Greater Good. 13. The New Deal and the Publicity of Social Enterprise. 14. Money Talks: The Publicity of Private Enterprise -- Pt. 5. Commercializing the Cosmos. 15. Public Ultimatums. 16. Engineering Consensus. Coda: The Public and Its Problems: Some Notes for the New Millennium.

ISBN

0465061680

LCCN

96002243

OCLC

• 34149757
• ocm34149757

Owning Institutions

Columbia University Libraries