The Voice of Business
Hill & Knowlton and Postwar Public Relations
By Karen S. Miller
280 pp., 6.125 x 9.25, 6 illus., notes, bibl., index
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Paperback ISBN: 978-0-8078-7239-0
Published: September 2011 -
E-book EPUB ISBN: 978-0-8078-6694-8
Published: November 2000 -
E-book PDF ISBN: 979-8-8908-6798-8
Published: November 2000
Luther H. Hodges Jr. and Luther H. Hodges Sr. Series on Business, Entrepreneurship, and Public Policy
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Awards & distinctions
1999 Pride Award, National Communication Association, Public Relations Division
become the most important public relations agency in history:
Hill & Knowlton, Inc. By 1959, the combined sales of its
clients--which included Procter & Gamble, Texaco, Gillette, and
Avco Manufacturing as well as the steel, tobacco, and aviation
industries' trade associations--amounted to 10 percent of the
gross national product. The Voice of Business chronicles Hill
& Knowlton's influence on American public discourse in the
years following World War II.
Guided by its founder's conservative ideals, Hill &
Knowlton developed a twofold mission: to influence public
discussion about issues important to its clients and to educate
Americans about big business. Karen Miller shows how the agency
tried to manipulate public opinion, political debate, and news
media content about such issues as postwar military aircraft
procurement, the deregulation of margarine production, President
Truman's seizure of steel mills in 1952, and the cigarette health
scare of 1953-54. Though its campaigns did not change many
opinions, she says, Hill & Knowlton affected the public
indirectly by reinforcing the ideas of its clients and other
conservatives.
About the Author
Karen S. Miller is assistant professor at the University of Georgia in Athens, where she teaches public relations and media history.
For more information about Karen S. Miller, visit
the
Author
Page.
Reviews
"Miller's analysis . . . is fluent and persuasive."--American Historical Review
"Avoiding narrow institutional history, Karen Miller has written a good study of what was for many years the largest and most respected public relations agency. . . . The book makes a valuable contribution by explaining the public side of business."--Journal of American History
"Miller’s in-depth look at one firm’s campaigns succeeds in creating a more balanced picture of a public relations firm’s operation and impact, as well as its limited influence over public opinion. . . . This book fills an important niche in the history of public relations and demands the attention of scholars in the fields of business, education, journalism, and American culture."--History of Education Quarterly
"A good book covers a single topic well; an excellent one brings us into the world around it. Such is the case with The Voice of Business. . . . Insightful and entertaining. . . . A model of historiography."--Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly
"One of the few studies of PR firms and surely the best."--Choice
"This study of Hill & Knowlton, the pioneering PR firm, shrewdly assesses what public relations can and cannot do. Karen Miller achieves insights both revealing and entertaining into some telling moments of twentieth-century American public discourse--the 1952 seizure of the steel mills, the campaign for a vast Air Force, the war of butter versus oleo, and the early smoking-causes-cancer debate."--Richard M. Fried, University of Illinois at Chicago