ABSTRACT
Over the centuries, scholars have studied how individuals, institutions and groups have used various rhetorical stances to persuade others to pay attention to, believe in, and adopt a course of action. The emergence of public relations as an identifiable and discrete occupation in the early 20th century led scholars to describe this new iteration of persuasion as a unique, more systematized, and technical form of wielding influence, resulting in an overemphasis on practice, frequently couched within an American historical context.
This volume responds to such approaches by expanding the framework for understanding public relations history, investigating broad, conceptual questions concerning the ways in which public relations rose as a practice and a field within different cultures and countries at different times in history.
With its unique cultural and contextual emphasis, Pathways to Public Relations shifts the paradigm of public relations history away from traditional methodologies and assumptions, and provides a new and unique entry point into this complicated arena.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
part I|65 pages
Public relations history and faith
chapter 4|18 pages
An alternative view of social responsibility
part II|100 pages
Public relations history and politics/government
chapter 5|14 pages
The coercion of consent
chapter 6|17 pages
Forgotten roots of international public relations
chapter 7|20 pages
Government is different
chapter 8|16 pages
Building certainty in uncertain times
chapter 9|16 pages
I, Claudius the Idiot
part III|79 pages
Public relations history and reform
chapter 11|16 pages
Between international and domestic public relations
chapter 12|13 pages
Shell Oil as a window into the development of public relations in Nigeria
chapter 13|18 pages
The intersection of public relations and activism
part IV|97 pages
Public relations history and the profession