Crystallizing Public Opinion
Crystallizing Public Opinion is a book written by Edward Bernays and published in 1923. It is perhaps the first book to define and explain the field of public relations.[1]
Bernays defines the counsel on public relations, as, more than a press agent, someone who can create a useful symbolic linkage among the masses. Appropriate messages should be crafted based on careful study of group psychology, and disseminated by not merely purveying but actually creating news.
He gives examples from his early career and cites ideas from theorists including Walter Lippmann and Wilfred Trotter.
Response[edit]
Commentators acknowledged that Bernays was mapping out new territory with his book, which claimed to define the "counsel on public relations" for the first time. The New York Times called it "the first book to be devoted exclusively to the occupation which is gradually becoming of overwhelming national importance." Opinions of its merit varied. H. L. Mencken called it a "pioneer book" at the time but later disparaged it. Future senator Ernest Gruening, in a review called "Higher Hokum", asked whether persuading the public was much preferable to corralling them by heavier-handed means (the "public be damned" approach)—whether the end result would "be greatly different for the public which, while it no longer tolerates being 'damned,' guilelessly permits itself to be 'bunked'? Is seduction preferable to ravishment?"[3]