Fa parte dei libri che ho deciso di leggere prima delle prossime elezioni. Scritto negli anni 20 rimane una guida per migliorare la nostra comprensione dei messaggi a cui saremo sottoposti. Ne leggerò altri prima del 25 settembre, mi auguro che altri facciano lo stesso. Perché la conoscenza rende liberi.

dnf but read most of it, it’s well written but the information is just really outdated and i bet that these days there’s much better sources on this

You only have to look at the "About the Author" blurb on the book's cover to understand the significance of "Propaganda": Edward Bernays worked with Walter Lippman managing the propaganda of WWI, he helped the US government and United Fruit overthrow the Guatemalan government in the 50s, and ran many successful PR campaigns for business in between.

The book starts out with the following well-known quote that sets the tone for the book:

We are governed, our minds molded, our tastes formed, our ideas suggested, largely by men we have never heard of.

following which Bernays goes on to not only describe how much this is true, but details how it will become even more commonplace, especially in both politics and business.

In a way, this book tells the story of the beginning of public relations as an industry, and (as this edition's introduction critically points out) is an impressive work of propaganda in its own right, convincing readers that the business of public relations is a necessity:

[Big business] is increasingly availing itself of the services of the specialist in public relations. And it is my conviction that as big business becomes bigger the need for expert manipulation of its innumerable contact with the public will become greater.

Bernays presents a new kind of advertising, advocating a change from beating the advertisee over the head with reasons s/he should buy a product to instead make sweeping changes to social norms to convince the advertisee to become a buyer. His case example is that of a piano, where he suggests making popular the idea of a music room by making it a status symbol, making it popular among actors, etc.

The music room will be accepted because it has been made the thing. And the man or woman who has a music room… will naturally think of buying a piano. It will come to him as his own idea.

The writing style is a mix of both advertising and genuine explanation---Bernays intersperses descriptions of how he might sell a product with affirmations that these methods are effective. The writing sometimes flows well, but other times has jarring leaps in thought from one example to the next (though this might be a publishing artifact; I suspect extra breaks between disjoint sequences of paragraphs would eliminate this feeling).

The introduction to the book is worth your time; Mark Crispin Miller gives a modern (2004) critique of the writing, advising you to read the book critically. He points out that the book is a work of propaganda on its own (marketing the idea of public relations and, perhaps, the author himself as a consultant) and that Bernays presents corporations as having agreeable motives if only the public understood them better ("Business must express itself and its entire corporate existence so that the public will understand and accept it."), whether he actually believes that or not.

The meat of the book is in the first half---both the descriptions of propaganda and then the applications to both politics and business (clearly where Bernays has the most experience and what he has given the most thought to). The last five (admittedly short) chapters feel haphazardly tacked on, pointing out other parts of society that could benefit from judicious use of propaganda; feel free to skim these. (On a side note, the printing I have of this book has had a couple dozen typos in only 168 pages, which seems remarkably high.)

"Propaganda" was clearly written in a time when there was still a lot of low-hanging fruit in terms of marketing, both in business and politics. Bernays describes politicians giving national speaking tours at great expense, not only making poor use of time and money speaking to small groups but wasting effort speaking to voters whose votes you already had or whose minds you would never change. He points out what is common sense to modern marketing---simple analysis through surveys ahead of time avoid all of these inefficiencies.

Without Edward Bernays' "Propaganda", you don't have Noam Chomsky's "Manufacturing Consent." The latter is a direct response to the former, and to the society that Edward Bernays and his craft has produced, for better or for worse (probably mostly worse). In a lot of ways, it feels like reading Machiavelli (and more relevant to the current state of society). Do pick this up; it's a quick read (2-3 hours) and much more accessible than a Chomskyian analysis of the media.

Great insights and interesting to see the difference in society nearly a century ago. It was a pretty dry read though.

Read this book and understand how everything in our society is in some way shape or form attempting to control the thoughts and behaviors of the masses to some powerful person or corporations benefit.

I know it is fundamental, but i found it sounding more like a textbook, rather than a book. I guess this makes sense, since it was written almost a century ago, even before we saw the real propaganda machines of the Third Reich and Communism in action.

Anyone who's interested in understanding the function, process and effect of propaganda in our society should give this book a read. It's well worth understanding how marketing, advertising, and public relations are all just new labels the propagandist have slapped on the work that they do. This si a result of the original term, propaganda picking up a bad image following the end of WWII.

It's both eye-opening and scary. Edward Bernays wrote this book as propaganda for propaganda. He believes that propaganda is essential in shaping the opinions and attitudes of society. This is done by a small elite that tailor propaganda to achieve their aims. Below is an excerpt:

The conscious and intelligent manipulations of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of tour country. We are governed, our minds molded, our tastes formed, our ideas suggested, largely by men we have never heard of. This is the logical result of the way in which our democratic society is organized.

Bernays shares how to do this, by sharing his own first hand experience in the process of manipulating the many for the benefit of the few. The tools that are presented in Propaganda have no doubt become more refined with time and experience, keep that in mind as you read. This book is essential to understanding how susceptible we are to having our thoughts and actions shaped by propaganda.

"No matter how sophisticated, how cynical the public may become about publicity methods, it must respond to the basic appeals, because it will always need food, crave amusement, long for beauty,respond to leadership"