“Modern propaganda is a consistent, enduring effort to create or shape events to influence the relations of the public to an enterprise, idea or group.” —Edward Bernays

First published in 1928, Edward Bernays’ Propaganda may be the single most important work on public relations ever to appear.

Bernays (1891–1995), a nephew of Sigmund Freud, shaped the management of public opinion at a time when the modern media were beginning to take their present shape.

Propaganda today has a negative connotation, but Bernays uses the term in a neutral sense. Writing in the 1920s, he redefined what he called the “new propaganda” as public relations—a name that has stuck ever since.

Some of the details of Bernays’ work may seem to have a quaint charm, like his discussions of women’s hats and the length of skirts. Yet even the most casual reading reveals that the principles he sets out in this short but compelling book remain as true as ever in the present era of social media and AI.

Bernays is not a cynic or manipulator. He insists that public relations must make its case not in an exaggerated or dishonest way, but accurately and fairly. He stresses that public relations at its best influences mass opinion toward positive and uplifting ends. “We are proud of our diminishing infant death rate—and that too is the work of propaganda,” he writes.

Indeed for Bernays, propaganda, or public relations, is intimately linked to a well-functioning democracy. “Today the privilege of attempting to sway public opinion is everyone’s. It is one of the manifestations of democracy that any one may try to convince others and to assume leadership on behalf of his own thesis.”

Democratic government is shaped and directed by public opinion. Bernays tells us that public opinion can be shaped in turn. Public relations is an overwhelmingly powerful tool, but one that should always be focused on the long-term advancement of society.

Today, when information and disinformation are so widely disseminated—and to such confusing ends—Bernays’ shrewd, skillful, but ethical approach to managing mass opinion contains many lessons that need to be revisited and put to wider use.


This deluxe edition also includes Bernays’ 1923 classic Crystallizing Public Opinion.