Hilbert College

 Annotated Bibliography:

Public Relations History

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Aronoff, Craig and Otis Baskin" (1983) Public Relations: The History and the Practice. Wm. C Brown Publishers

Public relations has grown from three factors: a recognition of the power of public opinion, competition between institutions for public support, and development of media through which the public was easily reached. Historically, public relations has gone through three stages: manipulation, information, and mutual understanding , all three of which are still existent.

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Cantor, Bill (1984) Experts in Action: Inside Public Relations. Longman, Inc.

The French Revolution was instrumental in bringing public relations about, with the power of the people manifesting itself in a decisive way. The revolutionary period in the United States was also a time of developments in public relations, when the U.S. propagandized their people into a "new united nation of men and women."

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Center, Allen H. and Scott M. Cutlip (1982) Effective Public Relations. Prentice Hall.

The history of public relations has extended over many decades. The factors from which it originated are varied and complex. The influence of viewpoints by the communication of information has taken place since the earliest civilizations.

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Cutlip, Scott (1994) The Unseen Power: Public Relations, a History. Lawrence Earlbaum Associates.

Public relations has existed as early as 1800 years before the birth of Christ, when farm bulletins were used telling farmers how to grow their crops. Publicity was an important part in the development of America, being used to lure settlers from England, and as years went on, to lure settlers into the undeveloped lands of America. Twentieth century developments are linked to political reform movements.

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Cutlip,Scott M. (1995) Public Relations History: From the 17th to the 20th Century. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

In this book Cutlip traces the history of terminology associated with Public Relations, such as propaganda and publicity, and also illustrates the roots of PR and how it metamorphisized into the industry we know today. He focuses on specific instances of publicity dating back to the Neanderthals and gives concrete examples to explain the evolution. He also states how PR played a role in shaping our government, businesses, and educational institutions. (TJ)

Henry, Susan. (Summer 1997) Anonymous in her own name: Public relations pioneer Doris E. Fleischman . Journalism History.

The author talks about the life of Doris E. Fleischman. She was a pioneer in Public Relations and the feminist movement. Despite all of her accomplishments, her memory is still overshadowed by her husband, Edward L. Bernays.(DA)

Hierbert, Ray. (1966) Courtier to the Crowd. Iowa State University Press.

This text is about the life of Ivy Lee and his contributions to the Public Relations industry in the early twentieth century. Ivy Lee is famous not only for his Public Relations work for the railroads, the Rockefellers, and The Red Cross, just to name a few, but also for this quote that was given in a speech to the American railroad Guild on May 19, 1914: "the people now rule. We have substituted for the divine right of kings, the divine right of the multitude. The crowd is enthroned. This new sovereign has his courtiers, who flatter and caress precisely as did those who surrounded medieval emperors.".(DA)

Kam, Ralph. (1995) PRSA History. Online: http://www.hei.com/~prsa/history.htm

This website is a part of the official website of the Public Relations Society of America. It details the Society's formation in 1947 and lists the Society's major goals and code of professional standards.(DA)

Leahigh, Alan K. (1993) The History of- quote, unquote- Public Relations. Public Relations Quarterly.

Leahigh has compiled an article that tells the history of PR through the words of others. He illustrates how Public Relations permeated the past by giving direct quotations from historical figures regarding publicity. Some citations date back as far as the Bible while others were said by past minds such as Ben Franklin and Albert Einstein. It puts an interesting twist and subjectiveness on the story of PR. (TJ)

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Lesly, Philip (1962) Public Relations Handbook. Prentice-Hall.

Public relations is necessary in our times, created by leveling forces that have strengthened the power of men and reduced the control of those who are leaders. Changes in public relations have occurred very quickly, without time for historians to note the changes. Public relations began as publicity, but now has many other functions.

Miller, Karen S. (Fall/199&) Woman, man, lady, horse: Jane Stewart, public relations executive. Public Relations Review.

This biography highlights the life and career of Jane Stewart who was vice-president and later president of Group Attitudes, a division of Hill and Knowlton. What is most remarkable about Stewart's position is that she held these titles in 1956. Very little is known of the role women played in Public Relations before the 1970's. Stewart is one of the few women that did not fade away in anonymity.(DA)

Newsom, Doug, etc. (1992) This Is PR. Wadsworth Publishing Company.

This source is written as a text book of sorts. It clearly discusses the evolution of tactics and strategies of PR as well as how it began historically. The book discusses many specific people, such as Edward Bernays and Ivy Lee, who were important figures in early publicity. It also explains how PR adapted to and utilized changing technology to grow into the highly visible field it is now. It cites many major events like wars and revolutions as examples of PR at work in our society. (TJ)

Nolte, Lawrence. (1974) Fundamentals of Public Relations. Pergamon Press Inc.

This book offers a quality working definition of Public Relations and defines its concepts and functions well. It explains the history of PR from the time that there was a public to influence. As several other sources do, this book uses the context of the American Revolution,WWI and WWII to point out the historical significance of publicity. It also goes in depth to explain how the Constitution was written to exude good PR. Nolte helps to differentiate between types of publics too which is a good frame of reference for understanding what PR has become today. (TJ)

O'Neill, Kathleen. (1991) US Public Relations Evolves to Meet Society's Needs. Public Relations Journal.

O'Neill traces the beginning of PR, in the form we recognize today, back to Greek Rhetoric. She claims the earliest forms were fundraising, promotion, and press agentry. She explores how significant people such as George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and P.T. Barnum utilized PR and she allows other obscure examples to illustrate how publicity worked early on. Included in the article is a time line of interesting facts regarding PR such as the conception of PR bureaus and adoption of codes of ethics. (TJ)

Pearson, Ron. (1990) Perspectives on Public Relations History.Public Relations Review.

Pearson chronicles the history of Public Relations from several different view points. He argues that perspective plays a huge role in determining your outlook and uses of Hiebert, Pimlott and Tedlow to present his points. There is much discussion of how PR has changed with society and how attitudes of those in the industry have changed to advocate informing the public. It explains how publicity helped to shape democracy and big business also. The article seeks to show the evolution of PR from the standpoint of someone in the business which aides in understanding the innerworkings of the field. (TJ)

Pinlott, J.A.R. (1951) Public Relations and American Democracy

The development of public relations was a consequence of the rise of modern advertising . It is likely the upsurge of press publicity in the early years of the twentieth century was due to trends all ready operating. The most important change in American public relations since World War I may have been the growing self-consciousness of it's practitioners, not a change in the character of the activities pursued.

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The Rowland Company. (1997) Four Models Of Public Relations. Online: http://www.rowlandperth.com.au/pages/4models.html

This page depicts Professor James Grunig's definitive study of the nature of Public relations. Grunig defined four models of public relations: publicity, public education, winning asymmetrically, and mutual understanding.(DA)

Spector and Associates. (1997) Public Relations Museum. Online: http://www.prmuseum.com/home.html

This page includes retrospectives on Carl Byoir, Arthur W. Page, and Edward L. Bernays, three pioneers in Public Relations in the early 20th century. Through the history of these men the history of public relations is related.(DA)

St. John III, Burton (1998) "Public Relations as Community Building: Then and Now" Public Relations Quarterly Volume 43 number1

Public relations played a key part in the development of new communities during the expansion of the railroads around the turn of the century. The 1869 completion of the transcontinental railroad at Promontory Point, Utah was public relations first high profile opportunity.

Tye, Larry. (1998) The Father of Spin. Crown Publishers Inc.

This book tells the history of Public relations through the life of Edward L. Bernays. Bernays began turning heads when he married his wife, Doris E. Fleischman (another Public Relations pioneer), and they signed in at the Waldorf, an elegant hotel were the king and queen of Belgium had just honeymooned, as "Edward L. Bernays and his wife, Doris E. Fleischman". This made Doris the poster woman for feminism overnight. Bernays went on to assist the tobacco industry in pushing cigarettes during World War I and rewrote the book on competitive marketing. For example, when a bacon maker asked him to increase the company's sales Bernays did not attempt to show that this company was better than other bacon producers, but showed that America should eat more bacon.(DA)

Ward, Hiley. (1994) The Unseen Power:Public Relations. Editor &Publisher.