On Sat, 14 Feb 2009 17:21:19 -0800, Christopher D. Green wrote: >Mike Palij wrote: >> It is unlikely that Moses was influenced by Bernays (indeed, it is >> more likely that Moses influenced Bernays). In Robert Caro's >> definitive biography of Moses "The Power Broker" the index contains no >> mention of Bernays. This book is also on books.google.com and a search >> of it for Bernays turns up no hits. > >History, like science, is not very reliably practiced as a speculative >endeavor. Bernays was busy long before the Fair. His first major PR >campaign was for Woodrow Wilson, selling the American vision for the >post-war world. Then came the Torches of Freedom campaign in the 1920s.
Actually, his Wikipedia entry provides more detail, including detailing his published work; see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Bernays It is interesting to see that one could write a book entitled "Propaganda" as a positive subject. I wonder what sort of conversation there would be if Bernays and George Orwell ever met. >By 1939, Bernays was already the leading PR man in America for two >decades and had been hired by the car companies to advance their cause. Given what Wikipedia provides, I think the emphasis on cars is misplaced. His distinction between "public relations" and "advertising" is worth noting especially in that he felt that public relations was intrinsic to democracy (if one accepted Freudian notions like "herd instinct"). His book "Propaganda" and its apparent use by the Nazis seem to trump anything he did with cars. But given what is in the Wikipedia entry, I can see why the BBC documentary "The Century of the Self" and Stuart Ewen's book "PR" are important guides to understanding Bernay (the first chapter of Ewen's book in available here: http://home.bway.net/drstu/chapter.html ). It is also interesting to see the possible influence of Walther Lippman on Bernays (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Lippmann ) >I do not know about "influence," but I didn't claim Bernays "influenced" >anyone. Sorry. I must have misunderstood what "public relations" was about. >He sold the car companies' aspirations by couching them not as >"you need a car" but rather as "freedom," "progress," and "the future." >From what little I've read, I think there is more to what Bernays did than simply connect products with positive evaluations or concepts. It appears to be more a matter of how to implement effective social control (Ewen's chapter above makes this clear). >Moses was, by contrast, "the master builder." (He was also a local New >York figure, for the most part.) I may be biased in my appraisal of things related to New York but allow me to make two points: (1) Quoting Ken Burns (from Burns, Sanders & Ades' "New York: An Illustrated History") quoting Robert Caro: |Robert Moses shaped a city and its sprawling suburbs -- and, to an |extent that would have astonished analysts of urban trends had they |measured the implications or his decades of handiwork, influenced |the destiny of all cities of twentieth century America. (p405) (2) New York is just a limited area geographically but its influence in the arts, the sciences, business and finance, politics, and other areas is international. Quoting Ken Burns again from an interview in American Heritage magazine on the occasion of his series on New York (which accompanied the above Burns et al book): |First of all, why New York City? | |Americans are fond of thinking of New York as the most foreign |of American cities, but to a degree that I think is startling, the story |of New York is the story of America. I mean, the principal themes |of American culture and society, in a fascinating and very moving way, |came bubbling out of the ground long before they called it New York, |back when it was New Amsterdam. The extent to which America is a |commercial, diverse society that thinks of itself as at once unrelentingly |capitalistic and unrelentingly democratic, and hopes to not compromise |either of those enterprises, all comes from New York. It remains today |the supreme laboratory of the American experiment in capitalism and |democracy, and the laboratory for modern culture. That's what drew |us to the project. http://www.americanheritage.com/articles/magazine/ah/1999/7/1999_7_68.shtml But what do I know? I'm just a New Yawker. -Mike Palij New York University [email protected] --- To make changes to your subscription contact: Bill Southerly ([email protected])
