PR! - A Social History of Spin | 
 enlarge | Author: Stuart Ewen
Publisher: Basic Books
Category: Book
List Price: $20.95
Buy Used: $2.00
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Rating:  20 reviews
Sales Rank: 63212
Media: Paperback
Pages: 480
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.5
Dimensions (in): 8.9 x 5.9 x 1.3
ISBN: 0465061796
Dewey Decimal Number: 659.2
EAN: 9780465061792
Publication Date: November 1996
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: Reading and shelf wear, inside is clean
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Amazon.com Review
As "spin" assumes an omnipresent role in contemporary discourse, chasing out frank or direct speech with buzzwords and carefully weighted terminology, the time is ripe for a study of the industry that started it all. Stuart Ewen has written an exhaustive study of public relations that traces the evolution of PR throughout the 20th century, from the history of early advertising to its role in politics and "corporate communications." PR! is a book not just for industry types or communications majors, it contains thoughtful reflections on the impact of manufactured media on our culture and democracy, topics relevant to all.
Product Description
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.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 15 more reviews...
 A book about thought control October 5, 2001
Bakari Chavanu (Elk Grove, CA USA)
13 out of 13 found this review helpful
A teacher colleague and I read this book when it was first published. We would go to the teachers' lunch room almost everday with an ongoing discussion of what we read. To understand the history, power and influence of public relations and advertising in this country, PR is a must read. In lucid analysis, Ewen lays out how the public relations industry in this country helps to shape the consumer thought of citizens. He shows how this industry grew out of
an elitist view of the masses of people in this country that they did not need to be expose to certain information or processes that converen or controll society--both politically and economically. That instead, their thoughts, ideas, and their access to certain knowledge needed to be controlled and that certain information needed to be manufactured in order to push people to act in a certain way. He explains, for example, how elitist writers like Walter Lippman "had written that the key to leadership inthe modern age would depend on the ability to manipulate "'symbols which assemble emotions after they have been detached from their ideas. The public mind is mastered, he continued, through an 'intensificatioin of feeling and a degradation of significance.' " In other words, corporations, and their public relations workers essentially use symbols to further their agendas, which is basically to make huge amounts of profit. I look forward to reading other books by Ewen.
A fine guide to America's landscape June 24, 1998
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
Beyond being a compelling survey of the history of public relations, I think this book offers a pathway for better understanding a world where--more and more--nothing is as it seems; where there is no reality other than the one assembled by image managers and spin controllers. Clearly written and sobering, this book should provide news junkies around the world with a powerful antidote for the pageantry of staged events.
Best book on the subject of PR February 16, 2000
10 out of 12 found this review helpful
I've recently been investigating the history of public relations for a class I'm teaching. Having surveyed the literature on the subject, this one is head and shoulders the best, more informative and insightful than other books. The historical depth, and range of analysis--linking public relations to broader social realities--are extraordinary.
Required reading for anyone who wants to understand mass media. August 31, 2006
John Vornle (Westport, Connecticut USA)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
This is a must read to understand public relations at its highest form and necessary to prepare for implementation of disruptive technology, or the marketing of any product. It highlights the procedures and the effectiveness of the procedures. It gives many thoughts to contemplate at a commercial and social level.
Must Read September 13, 1999
4 out of 5 found this review helpful
Recently there has been a lot of news about AT&T's campaign to establish global domination over the internet. In this book, we learn that AT&Ts attempt to gain a monopoly over all forms of communication is a century old. From 1904, Ewen relates, AT&T was already packaging its plan to gain control of all forms of wire communication in the disguise of kindly old "Ma Bell." The section on AT&T, along with the rest of the book, is must reading.
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