Bernays is considered the father of public relations, but this book, written in the 1920s, is rather outdated to be of much use to the 21st century reader. It's an interesting bit of history and something of a primer on manipulating public opinion. If you don't consider yourself cynical enough already, read it and enjoy. If the idea of becoming a professional spinmeister appeals to you, you should probably read something published after the emergence of social media.

How ironic it is that a book that talks about propaganda, and how wonderful that concept might be, fails to entice me.

If you're in the advertising or marketing business this is a book for you. If you're just curious about the idea and the history of propaganda, veer away.

Although very enlightening and interesting read as one of the major books on propaganda, it still lacks a modern look on the subject.

Sorry Edward but propaganda doesn’t affect me, I’m built different

Nice read with some great sections about the communication of ideas.

Published in 1928, Propaganda is a presentation of Edward Bernays' ideas on how communication of information between the individual and the group should operate in a society. Bernays' central premise is that the tastes and preferences of a society's populace should be guided by a minority group through public relations. The basis of these public relations is 'propaganda', a term Bernays defends throughout to simply mean 'promotion of a viewpoint'. Unfortunately for him, the term had gained negative connotations in WWI for its German association in the decade prior. The proposed minority is a managerial aristocracy who would decide on the most informed consumer decisions for the public. The propagating of these ideas to the masses would then supposedly result in a "smoothly functioning society".

Now to what the book is actually about. Behind its poorly constructed and almost certainly harmful ideology, Propaganda is a not so subtle sales pitch aimed at potential corporate clients. The services advertised are Bernays' public relations (read: mass manipulation) skills, best in the nascent field at the time. Bernays discusses several examples of those he believes would benefit from PR including political leaders, social service organisations and universities. To support his argument, Bernays offers examples of PR success stories. What he deftly fails to mention is that these are all his previous pieces of work! The guy is truly a sly salesman. As with most sales pitches though, once its intentions are clear Propaganda develops a subtle irritating quality.

The sole value in reading this book, in my opinion, comes from the section on the psychology of public relations. This is where we see get to see under the hood of how Bernays employs his services. A truly interesting point I have left until now is that Bernays was Sigmund Freud's nephew. Bernays was an avid believer in his uncle's psychoanalytic ideas, extending the individual's subconscious to a macro scale giving 'the herd'. The herd members believe they are making autonomous decisions, when it is in fact their subconscious that is in control. Being social creatures, humans defer to leaders for decisions and see it as socially desirable to adhere to group customs. Bernays thus concludes that the most effective way to manipulate people is to alter group customs. Instead of a direct sales approach, he instead seeks to develop public acceptance of an idea. One of the best examples is Bernays' public promotion of the idea that every house needs a music room. The hidden agenda of course is that he is working for a company selling pianos. Once it is an established group custom for a house to have a music room, people no longer have the mentality of being sold a piano, instead they are buying one to fulfill a social norm. This may seem grandiose and unrealistic, but how group customs emerge is usually more subtle and far reaching than that of music rooms.

One of the most entertaining and bewildering things I've read is Ed Bernays' Wikipedia page. The guy's work is manipulative as hell, but the chutzpah and creativity of it is a source of marvel. The outcomes also don't appear to be obviously harmful, which begs the question of whether it is truly immoral behaviour. Bernays did not have an agenda to take over the world with his work, he was simply a mercenary brought into corporations to sell more stuff. However, he did work to promote smoking while trying to get his wife to quit. This rules out complete naivety of the harmful nature of some of his work. What is more disturbing though is that Goebbels read and used Bernays' books to inform his public manipulation methods. Hence, the ideas present massive potential for exploitation. As Bernays argues though, manipulation of the public mind can be used for good as well as bad intentions, so moral arguments can be made on both sides. Perhaps then, an awareness of this exploitable social dynamic is most important.

The introduction to Propaganda by Mark Crispin Miller is well written and puts the book in context. The actual book is short and it is kind of intriguing to hear thoughts on business from that time period. Ultimately, I believe the ideas presented are important but I do not believe reading the whole book is necessary to examine them. 3 stars.

It's not so much that I liked this book as I feel that we're living with its results.