| Book Review | The Journal of American History, 88.4

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| Book Review | The Journal of American History, 88.4 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

La democrazia degli affari: Comunicazione aziendale e discorso pubblico negli Stati Uniti, 1900–1940 (The democracy of business: Business communication and public discourse in the United States, 1900–1940). By Ferdinando Fasce. (Rome: Carocci, 2000. 214 pp. Paper, Lit 33,000, ISBN 88-430-1535-4.) In Italian.

Ferdinando Fasce's La democrazia degli affari (The democracy of business) joins several important recent works on the development of corporate public relations in the United States in the first half of the twentieth century. Fasce brings detailed archival research, a thorough familiarity with the relevant secondary sources, and a command of the literature on his main theoretical concerns—professionalization, democratic theory, and the public sphere. His perspective from abroad adds to the value of this insightful work. 1

To those acquainted with studies by Richard Tedlow and Stuart Ewen and with Roland Marchand's magisterial Creating the Corporate Soul (1998), Fasce's book may at first seem to cover familiar territory. He discusses public relations icons such as Ivy Lee and Edward Bernays, Theodore Vail's promotion of a "service" ideal for AT&T's regulated monopoly, the Committee on Public Information's efforts during World War I, the corporate advertising campaigns of General Motors and General Electric, the National Association of Manufacturers' anti–New Deal efforts, and corporate visions of the future at the New York World's Fair in 1939. But throughout Fasce's approach is thoughtful and stimulating. . . .

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