PROPAGANDA

By Edward Bernays
Introduction by Mark Crispin Miller

First published in 1928, Propaganda remains one of the most influential and controversial examinations of mass persuasion, public opinion, and the emerging profession of public relations.

Edward Bernays presents his theory of how governments, businesses, political leaders, and cultural institutions can shape collective attitudes through organized communication. His analysis moves through politics, commerce, education, art, science, and public life, revealing how messages can be designed to influence what societies notice, believe, and ultimately do.

This compact 168-page edition includes an introduction by media scholar Mark Crispin Miller, placing Bernays’s arguments within a broader history of power, democracy, advertising, and institutional persuasion.

KEY THEMES

• The formation of public opinion

• Propaganda in democratic societies

• The origins of modern public relations

• Mass psychology and collective behavior

• Political communication

• Corporate persuasion

• Advertising and consumer culture

• Media influence

• Leadership and the “engineering of consent”

• Institutional control of narratives

• Ethics, power, and organized persuasion

• The relationship between communication and democracy

A FOUNDATIONAL—AND TROUBLING—TEXT

Bernays does not write merely as an outside critic. He presents propaganda as an organized social mechanism and argues that shaping public opinion is central to the functioning of modern institutions.

That position makes the book both historically valuable and ethically unsettling. Contemporary readers can examine its ideas as a blueprint for twentieth-century public relations and as a warning about the concentration of influence in governments, corporations, political campaigns, and media systems.

FROM WARTIME INFORMATION TO PUBLIC RELATIONS

During World War I, Bernays worked with the United States Committee on Public Information, which mobilized communication and publicity to build support for the war. He later adapted lessons from wartime messaging to commercial and political public relations.

Drawing on emerging ideas about crowd psychology and psychoanalysis—including work associated with Walter Lippmann and Bernays’s uncle, Sigmund Freud—he developed methods for connecting public messages with emotion, identity, aspiration, and unconscious desire.

READING PROPAGANDA TODAY

Although written nearly a century ago, the book offers a useful historical lens for examining advertising, political messaging, brand strategy, news framing, influencer culture, social media, and algorithmically amplified narratives.

Its inclusion in the Reading Room is not an endorsement of manipulation. It is an invitation to understand how persuasive systems are constructed—and to become a more critical reader, viewer, voter, and consumer.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Edward Bernays (1891–1995) was a pioneering and controversial figure in public relations. Often associated with the development of modern techniques for shaping public opinion, he advised corporate, political, and institutional clients throughout his career.

His work helped establish public relations as a professional field while raising enduring ethical questions about persuasion, consent, democracy, and power.

ABOUT THE INTRODUCTION

Mark Crispin Miller is a media scholar and cultural critic whose introduction places Propaganda within the histories of public relations, political communication, corporate influence, and mass media.

BOOK DETAILS

• Author: Edward Bernays

• Introduction by: Mark Crispin Miller

• Original publication: 1928

• Edition publication date: September 1, 2004

• Number of pages: 168

• Dimensions: 0.5 × 7.6 × 4.9 inches

• Publisher: Ig Publishing

• Subjects: Propaganda, public relations, political communication, advertising, mass psychology, and media influence

PERFECT FOR

• Media-studies readers

• Marketing and public-relations professionals

• Journalists and communicators

• Political-science students

• Historians

• Cultural critics

• Advertising students

• Readers interested in persuasion and power

• Anyone developing stronger media literacy

WHY YOU’LL LOVE IT

Propaganda turns the lights toward the machinery behind the message—a slim, unsettling classic that asks who shapes public opinion, whose interests the story serves, and what happens when influence becomes invisible.

BOOK CONDITION NOTICE

Books may be new or gently used depending on supplier availability. Gently used copies may show minor handling or shelf wear but will remain in good, readable condition. Please review the product condition details before purchasing.