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United States–Development and Expansion of Public Relations

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North American Perspectives on the Development of Public Relations

Abstract

Twentieth-century US public relations historiography has focused primarily on corporate public relations and agencies, incorporating a “great man” perspective and largely excluding women and minorities. This scholarship allows us to begin to build a narrative, presented here, but the authors call for an expansion of what is considered public relations and of who practiced it. Public relations was often used by people in areas such as politics, churches, higher education institutions, and social service agencies who were not trying to invent public relations; rather they were solving problems by using communication to inform and persuade their audiences. The activism of suffragist and women’s rights advocate Alice Paul, and Henry Lee Moon, NAACP public relations director, illustrates that American public relations history is broad, diverse, and expansive.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Advertising & Public Relations, University of Alabama, College of Communication & Information Sciences, 905 University Boulevard, Tuscaloosa, AL, 35487, USA

    Margot Opdycke Lamme

  2. Grady College of Journalism & Mass Communication, University of Georgia, Athens, GA, 30602-3018, USA

    Karen Miller Russell

  3. Elon University, School of Communication, 100 College Avenue, Elon, NC, 27244, USA

    Denise Hill

  4. Spector & Associates, 61 Broadway, 10th Floor, New York, NY, 10006, USA

    Shelley Spector

Authors
  1. Margot Opdycke Lamme
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  2. Karen Miller Russell
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  3. Denise Hill
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  4. Shelley Spector
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Margot Opdycke Lamme .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Media & Communication, Bournemouth University, Poole, United Kingdom

    Tom Watson

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Lamme, M.O., Russell, K.M., Hill, D., Spector, S. (2017). United States–Development and Expansion of Public Relations. In: Watson, T. (eds) North American Perspectives on the Development of Public Relations. National Perspectives on the Development of Public Relations. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-349-95044-7_3

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