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Propaganda Paperback – September 1, 2004

by Edward Bernays (Author), Mark Crispin Miller (Introduction)
4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 2,838 ratings
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“Bernays’ honest and practical manual provides much insight into some of the most powerful and influential institutions of contemporary industrial state capitalist democracies.”—Noam Chomsky

“The conscious and intelligent manipulation 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 our country.”—Edward Bernays

A seminal and controversial figure in the history of political thought and public relations, Edward Bernays (1891–1995), pioneered the scientific technique of shaping and manipulating public opinion, which he famously dubbed “engineering of consent.” During World War I, he was an integral part of the U.S. Committee on Public Information (CPI), a powerful propaganda apparatus that was mobilized to package, advertise and sell the war to the American people as one that would “Make the World Safe for Democracy.” The CPI would become the blueprint in which marketing strategies for future wars would be based upon.

Bernays applied the techniques he had learned in the CPI and, incorporating some of the ideas of Walter Lipmann, as well as his uncle, Sigmund Freud, became an outspoken proponent of propaganda as a tool for democratic and corporate manipulation of the population. His 1928 bombshell Propaganda lays out his eerily prescient vision for using propaganda to regiment the collective mind in a variety of areas, including government, politics, art, science and education. To read this book today is to frightfully comprehend what our contemporary institutions of government and business have become in regards to organized manipulation of the masses.

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  1. Print length
    175 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Ig Publishing
  4. Publication date
    September 1, 2004
  5. Dimensions
    5 x 0.3 x 7.7 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    9780970312594
  7. ISBN-13
    978-0970312594
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Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ 0970312598
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Ig Publishing; F First Paperback Edition Used (September 1, 2004)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 175 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 9780970312594
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0970312594
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 2.31 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5 x 0.3 x 7.7 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 2,838 ratings

About the author

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Mark Crispin Miller

Mark Crispin Miller

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Mark Crispin Miller is Professor of Media, Culture and Communication at New York University. He is the author of several books, including 'Boxed In: The Culture of TV;' 'The Bush Dyslexicon: Observations on a National Disorder;' 'Cruel and Unusual: Bush/Cheney’s New World Order' and 'Fooled Again: The Real Case for Electoral Reform.' He is also the editor of 'Loser Take All: Election Fraud and the Subversion of Democracy, 2000-2008.' His essays and articles have appeared in many journals, magazines and newspapers throughout the nation and the world, and he has given countless interviews worldwide.

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Top reviews from the United States

Claudia Gennari Lacerda
5.0 out of 5 stars terrifying book
Reviewed in the United States on January 10, 2024
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This book is a public manipulation manual and its connections to the world today are terrifying. Must read book though.
10 people found this helpful
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Clay Garner
5.0 out of 5 stars '' 'Democracy' requires a supra-governmental of professionals to sift the data, think things through, and keep from blowing up''
Reviewed in the United States on December 25, 2016
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This work from 1922 explains the new 'science' of propaganda discovered in WW1. They found the ability of professionals to persuade the populace to die and suffer for - What?

''From his observations on the Allied propaganda drives’ immense success (and his own stint as a U.S. war propagandist), and from his readings of Gustave LeBon, Graham Wallas and John Dewey, among others, Lippmann had arrived at the bleak view that “the democratic El Dorado” is impossible in modern mass society, whose members—by and large incapable of lucid thought or clear perception, driven by herd instincts and mere prejudice, and frequently disoriented by external stimuli—were not equipped to make decisions or engage in rational discourse.''

(I just read Gustave Le Bon’s “The Crowd: A Study Of the Popular Mind”. Great!)

Wow! Society ''incapable of lucid thought''. Now what?

'' 'Democracy' therefore requires a supra-governmental body of detached professionals to sift the data, think things through, and keep the national enterprise from blowing up or crashing to a halt. Although mankind surely can be taught to think, that educative process will be long and slow. In the meantime, the major issues must be framed, the crucial choices made, by 'the responsible administrator.' ''

Requires a ''supranational governmental body''! Who is that?

“It is on the men inside, working under conditions that are sound, that the daily administration of society must rest.” While Lippmann’s argument is freighted with complexities and tinged with the melancholy of a disillusioned socialist, Bernays’s adaptation of it is both simple and enthusiastic:

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

''These “invisible governors” are a heroic elite, who coolly keep it all together, thereby “organizing chaos,” as God did in the Beginning.

“It is they who pull the wires which control the public mind, who harness old social forces and contrive new ways to bind and guide the world.” While Lippmann is meticulous—indeed, at times near-Proustian—in demonstrating how and why most people have such trouble thinking straight, Bernays takes all that for granted as “a fact.”

‘Pull the wires on the puppets!’ What? As God did? Who is this?

''It is a sort of managerial aristocracy that quietly determines what we buy and how we vote and what we deem as good or bad.

“They govern us,” the author writes, “by their qualities of natural leadership, their ability to supply needed ideas and by their key position in the social structure.”

Man . . . this is . . . bad . . . right? It . . . is . . . so . . . scary!

I - ORGANIZING CHAOS
II - THE NEW PROPAGANDA
III - THE NEW PROPAGANDISTS
IV - THE PSYCHOLOGY OF PUBLIC RELATIONS
V - BUSINESS AND THE PUBLIC
VI - PROPAGANDA AND POLITICAL LEADERSHIP
VII - WOMEN’S ACTIVITIES AND PROPAGANDA
VIII -PROPAGANDA FOR EDUCATION
IX - PROPAGANDA IN SOCIAL SERVICE
X - ART AND SCIENCE
XI - THE MECHANICS OF PROPAGANDA

WW1 changed everything -

''It was not until 1915 that governments first systematically deployed the entire range of modern media to rouse their populations to fanatical assent. Here was an extraordinary state accomplishment: mass enthusiasm at the prospect of a global brawl that otherwise would mystify those very masses, and that shattered most of those who actually took part in it. The Anglo-American drive to demonize “the Hun,” and to cast the war as a transcendent clash between Atlantic “civilization” and Prussian “barbarism,” made so powerful an impression on so many that the worlds of government and business were forever changed.''

Propaganda now rules!

''Today, however, a reaction has set in. The minority has discovered a powerful help in influencing majorities. It has been found possible so to mold the mind of the masses that they will throw their newly gained strength in the desired direction. In the present structure of society, this practice in inevitable. Whatever of social importance is done today, whether in politics, finance, manufacture, agriculture, charity, education, or other fields, must be done with the help of propaganda.''

‘Minority dominates the majority’! Mold the mind of the ‘masses’!

Wow!

''Propaganda is the executive arm of the invisible government. Universal literacy was supposed to educate the common man to control his environment. Once he could read and write he would have a mind fit to rule. So ran the democratic doctrine. But instead of a mind, universal literacy has given him rubber stamps, rubber stamps inked with advertising slogans, with editorials, with published scientific data, with the trivialities of the tabloids and the platitudes of history, but quite innocent of original thought.''

‘Education kills original thought’! What deceit! How . . . so . . . demeaning!

''Each man’s rubber stamps are the duplicates of millions of others, so that when those millions are exposed to the same stimuli, all received identical imprints. It may seem an exaggeration to say that the American public gets most of its ideas in this wholesale fashion. The mechanism by which ideas are disseminated on a large scale is propaganda, in the broad sense of an organized effort to spread a particular belief or doctrine.''

‘Everyone approves . . . wants . . . believes . . . exactly the same thing! Even if destructive!

The balance of this book explains how this new 'propaganda' can/does function.

Fascinating!

(Rebecca Goldstein notes in her book on Gödel - ''He came to believe that there was a vast conspiracy, apparently in place for centuries, to suppress the truth “and make men stupid.” Those who had discovered the full power of a priori reason, men such as the seventeenth-century’s Leibniz and the twentieth-century’s Gödel, were, he believed, marked men.'' (Is this so different than Bernays? One sophisticated influence peddler, the other an ivory tower world famous logician! Amazing!)

(See - ''Propaganda: The Formation of Men's Attitudes'', by Jacques Ellul. This focuses on the psychological/philosophical basis of propaganda. Outstanding!)
148 people found this helpful
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KentuckianaKinist
4.0 out of 5 stars I like it for what it exposes, not what it expouses!
Reviewed in the United States on July 14, 2014
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This is a brief and fascinating account of propaganda written in 1928 by the man generally considered to be the founder of modern propaganda and the so-called "public relations counsel" concept now used by business, academia, and government.
To start off, Bernays was an ethnic Jew, nephew of Sigmund Freud, and Wilson administration apparatchik during WWI. Following his "service" with the "U.S. Committee on Public Information" to sell the American public on the need to enter World War I-an action that was TOTALLY unnecessary and detrimental to American interest, Bernays went into propaganda for money. Bernays was also the husband of Dorris Fleischman, a noted feminist and the first married American woman to be issued a U.S. passport in her maiden name (in 1925).
Bernays begins the first chapter of this book talking of the "invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country". Bernays enthusiastically advocates the deliberate, scientific, and subtle manipulation of the minds of the public by the (supposedly) enlightened professional propagandist and his clients in usiness and government. Bernays states that this manipulation should only be used for good, or for neutral purposes that benefit his customers; however, it is clear that this power was liable to extreme abuse.
Lest anyone doubt where Bernays stood politically, he was involved with the Woodrow Wilson administration, in Propaganda in Bernays positively quotes Fabian Society socialist George Bernard Shaw and former Fabian socialist-turned-hard-core-socialist-one-world-government advocate H.G. Wells!
Bernay's also notes "that the American motion picture is the greatest unconscious carrier of propaganda in the world today." It was true in 1928, and it is still true today.
Bernays book "Propaganda" is a very enlightening read for an American patriot such as myself who is studying the enemies of his country. America's problems are a result of careful planning, not random chance. This book will give one insight into the brilliant, yet twisted, mind of an noteworthy figure in the destruction of American government and society. After reading Bernays' book, one has the desire to read something good-such as the Bible, the U.S. Constitution, or a book on the patriots of the American Revolution.
39 people found this helpful
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Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars Great book!
Reviewed in the United States on March 23, 2024
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Prompt service and very informative book.
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Rilla
5.0 out of 5 stars Propaganda
Reviewed in the United States on February 19, 2024
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It was awesome. Highlighted how a lot of the things in the world today were incorporated. We’re basically designed to fail as a society by the hierarchy elites
8 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

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Nevermind
5.0 out of 5 stars Very relevant in 2023
Reviewed in Canada on November 27, 2023
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Propaganda never changes. The west is being taken over by marxist elites. This book explains how they saturate the masses with propaganda by so called "experts". The lying corporate media reports the lies and government pretends to just be doing what the experts recommended. Literally how the covid insanity was inflicted on the people. Surprised marxist Democrats haven't banned this book!!!!
2 people found this helpful
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kissle cowie
5.0 out of 5 stars Realistic
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 16, 2024
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Excellent coverage,almost a century later and nothing has changed except that propaganda is now called Public Relations (PR) and the "news paper" is the world wide web (social media)
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Flavie F.
5.0 out of 5 stars Interesting
Reviewed in France on August 1, 2023
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Interesting book
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vividart
5.0 out of 5 stars Wie man durch Wiederholung die Gesellschaft manipuliert
Reviewed in Germany on July 14, 2021
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Der Urtext zum Thema Propaganda, der Urtext zur Public Relation und der Urtext der Werbung. Das was wir immer und immer wieder hören wird zur Wahrheit, auch wenn es der größte Blödsinn ist. Der Neffe von Sigmund Freud analysierte die amerikanische Gesellschaft und propagierte Freuds Psychoanalyse auch in den USA. Freud untersuchte den einzelnen Menschen, Bernays die Massen und ihre Funktionsgesetze.
— Edward Bernays „Die bewusste und intelligente Manipulation der organisierten Gewohnheiten und Meinungen der Massen ist ein wichtiges Element in der demokratischen Gesellschaft. Diejenigen, die diesen unsichtbaren Mechanismus der Gesellschaft manipulieren, bilden eine unsichtbare Regierung, die die wahre Regierungsmacht unseres Landes ist.“
Interessant ist es, dass es erst jetzt eine deutsche Übersetzung dieses Buches aus 1928 gibt. Als ob die Verlage und Medien dieses wichtige Buch im deutschen Sprachraum verschweigen wollten?
Hat doch gerade Hitler und sein Propaganda Minister alles was Bernays beschreibt mit Punkt und Beistrich angewendet. Gerade wenn es Missbrauch der Grundlagen der Prinzipien der Propaganda gibt, sollten diese Prinzipien so vielen Menschen wie möglich zugänglich gemacht werden.
Dieses schmale Buch mit seinen weniger als 90 Seiten sollte als Pflichtlektüre jedem Schüler durch ein derzeit in Schulen
vernachlässigtes Fach “Medienerziehung“ zugänglich gemacht werden. Oder ist Totschweigen dieser Prinzipien der Werbung, der PR, der Manipulation der Massen, für die politischen Parteien und die Werbewirtschaft wichtiger als die Manipulation der öffentlichen Meinung transparent zu machen? Gerade jetzt, wo fake news überall auftauchen, ist dieses Buch ein Segen, zeigt es doch auf, dass die veröffentlichte Meinung einer direkten beabsichtigten Zielsetzung folgt und die hat sehr viel mit Macht und Kontrolle zu tun.
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Adrian Martinez Aguilar
5.0 out of 5 stars Excelente forma de aprender como usar la propaganda!!!!
Reviewed in Mexico on November 16, 2019
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Me gusto ver la manera en que pueden controlar a las masas, y hacerles creer lo que quieran.
One person found this helpful
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