Captains of Consciousness offers a historical look at the origins of the advertising industry and consumer society at the turn of the twentieth century. For this new edition Stuart Ewen, one of our foremost interpreters of popular culture, has written a new preface that considers the continuing influence of advertising and commercialism in contemporary life. Not limiting his critique strictly to consumers and the advertising culture that serves them, he provides a fascinating history of the ways in which business has refined its search for new consumers by ingratiating itself into Americans' everyday lives. A timely and still-fascinating critique of life in a consumer culture.

A history of public relations, this work begins with World War I, when Ivy Lee, one of America's first corporate PR men, helped create a new climate in which public relations and corporate image management would become paramount in American society. Ewen chronicles the development of a culture that we now take for granted. He examines the social conditions that spawned public relations, ideas that inspired its strategists, the increasing use of images as tools of persuasion, and the ways that the rise of public relations interacted with the changing dynamics of public life itself.

A provocative, compelling, and entertaining look at how the power of images dominates every aspect of our lives.