The Bare-Knuckled Truths of Edward Bernays
You may not know Edward Bernays, but Edward Bernays knows you. His 1923 classic
Crystallizing Public Opinion set down the principles that corporations and government have used to influence and manipulate public attitudes over the past century, and the mass media continues that practice today.
This seminal work on how public opinion is created and shaped, offers a glimpse into the world of propaganda and advertising. Bernays, who believes the public behaves like a herd of animals, shows how ideas about what to eat, and how we should look and dress can easily be put into our heads. He outlines how the masses can be controlled in whatever way the influencer chooses.
This original and complete edition includes a new Introduction by PEN Award-winning historian, Mitch Horowitz.
By adapting the ideas that this pioneering PR strategist, who considered himself part of an intellectual and economic elite entitled to govern public opinion and global policy, governments and advertisers have been able to “regiment the mind.” His work explains the popularity of today’s TV news shout-fests and angry social media posts because, as Bernays observed, crowds love a contest. This crowd-contest dynamic fuels the hostile and sarcastic comment chains that populate Twitter, Facebook, and other social media outlets.
We know that beliefs can gain sudden popularity based on the public’s proclivity for seven factors: “flight-fear, repulsion-disgust, curiosity-wonder, pugnacity-anger, self-display-elation, self-abasement-subjection, parental-love-tenderness.”
Named as one of the 100 most influential Americans of the 20th Century by Life magazine, Bernays’ clients included the American Tobacco Company, several U.S. presidents and the opponents of the Guatemalan revolution. This Austrian-born nephew of Sigmund Freud made a study of the different ways to use propaganda. ‘Crystallizing Public Opinion’ was his first major effort to sell himself and his philosophy of public relations.
Despre autor
A widely known voice of esoteric ideas, Mitch Horowitz is a writer-in-residence at the New York Public Library, lecturer-in-residence at the University of Philosophical Research in Los Angeles, and the PEN Award-winning author of books including Occult America; One Simple Idea: How Positive Thinking Reshaped Modern Life; and The Miracle Club: How Thoughts Become Reality. Mitch introduces and edits G&D Media’s line of Condensed Classics and is the author of the Napoleon Hill Success Course series, including The Miracle of a Definite Chief Aim, The Power of the Master Mind, and Secrets of Self-Mastery. Visit him at Mitch Horowitz.com. Mitch resides in New York.
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