Propaganda

“A true, realistic book by Bernays describes in detail the most powerful and influential organizations in industrial capitalist democracies”
Noam Chomsky

An epoch-making, controversial figure in the history of political thought and PR, Edward Bernays (1891–1995) was the first to propose a scientific method for shaping and manipulating public opinion—what he called “the engineering of consent,” which is now widely known.
During World War I he worked actively in the Committee on Public Information (CPI), an influential propaganda apparatus tasked with “showing, advertising, and selling” the war to Americans—as a war that “will make the world safe for democracy.” The CPI became a prototype for the marketing strategies of future wars.

Applying the methods learned in the CPI, as well as some ideas of Walter Lippmann, Bernays became a fervent advocate of propaganda as an instrument of democratic and corporate manipulation of the people. His sensational book “Propaganda” (1928) reveals his frighteningly perceptive vision of propaganda as a way to manage collective consciousness in the widest range of areas, including government, politics, art, science, and education. Reading this book today, we realize with horror what modern institutions of power and business have become when people’s organized manipulation is in play.