Public Relations

by Edward L. Bernays

Publicist Edward L. Bernays offers here the kind of advice individuals and a variety of organizations sought from him on a professional basis during more than four decades. With such knowledge, every intelligent person can carry on his or her activities more effectively. This book provides know-why as well know-how. Bernays explains the underlying philosophy of public relations and the PR methods and practices to be applied in specific cases. He presents broad approaches and solutions as they were successfully carried out in his long professional career. Public relations is not publicity, press agentry, promotion, advertising, or a bag of tricks, but a continuing process of social integration. It is a field of adjusting private and public interest. Everyone engaged in any public activity, and every student of human behavior and society, will find in this book a challenge and opportunity to further both the public interest and their own interest.

Genres: Psychology, Politics, Nonfiction, Business, Philosophy, Sociology, History

384 pages, Paperback

First published December 12, 1952

About the author

Edward L. Bernays was an Austrian-American pioneer in the field of public relations and propaganda, referred to in his obituary as "the father of public relations".

Reviews

[Aiden Pilling · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fantastic core reader for those interested in Public Relations, Communications, Marketing, Social Psychology, Sociology and Advertisement.

Edward Bernays - the Nephew of renowned Psychologist Sigmund Freud and pioneer of PR and Propaganda - writes with honesty in this somewhat disturbing book, featuring ideas and practices that some might consider manipulative, dark and nihilistic. Bernays does an excellent job of providing context throughout, with clear and concise examples of his theory put into practice.

A book to make you reflect on the advertisement industry of the Western world, for sure.

Ofcourse, readers should take note that this book is somewhat outdated when considering the modes of communication used in the 21st Century. Nonetheless, this is a fanastic starting place for those interested in the aforementioned subjects.

[Unojoe2 · Rating 4 out of 5]

So far, Very information dense but in a readable flow.

[Evelyn and Roberto Carrasquillo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent Insight on Public Relations

This book a great introduction and overview on the field of public relations. This book was recommended by a friend and I really appreciate the recommendation.

[Elvis · Rating 2 out of 5]

After reading Crystallizing Public Opinion by Edward Bernays, which I enjoyed, I decided to go deeper into Edwards mind and read this book which was published approx. 20 years later. To my surprise Bernays did not go further into concepts of persuasion, "engineering of consent" and "social engineering". He named those concepts, but that was just it. He said that Sigmund Freud was his Uncle, but that was just it. Instead of analysis of the concepts and insights into human mind and our social entity, he provided us, the readers, with useless dates, statistics and numbers for the whole book. Sure there were some good quotes and some good parts where he explained the thinking behind his methods, but unfortunately that was for only few pages.

340 Pages of waste of time. Read Crystallizing Public Opinion instead.

[Juan Viale Rigo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Este libro es oro sólido.