Mr. Lee’s Publicity Book: A Citizen’s Guide to Public Relations

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This book, newly discovered from the archives of his biographer, is Ivy Lee’s only known full-length manuscript. Written in the mid-1920s, a time when the public relations field was first coming into its own, it is a guide not as much for the practitioner, but wisely, for a Jazz-Age public facing its first-ever bout of information overload. Lee advises the reader how to identify and cope with the seemingly relentless flow of messages–emanating from radio, newsreels and other new media–in order to separate out truth from reality, news from propaganda. He coaches the reader how to be a smart consumer of media, and shield himself from the newly emerging influence of motivational research and consumer crowd behavior. Although the book was written just as talkies were consuming the screen, the guidance it offers is just as valuable, perhaps even moreso, as YouTube and Twitter consume our screens, 90 years later.

Readers of Mr. Lee’s Publicity Book: A Citizen’s Guide to Public Relations annotated and edited by Burton St. John III will also enjoy fascinating observations from some of today’s pre-eminent scholars and historians of media and public relations. Their comments point to fascinating parallels between Lee’s day and today, and also explore the progress, or lack thereof, in the public’s comprehension of publicity’s impact today.