Larry Tye was a long-time journalist for The Boston Globe, where he won numerous awards for his work. He has been
a Nieman Fellow at Harvard University and is the author of Home Lands.
Review
"The Father of Spin . . . raises important issues about the presentation of information to the American
public by the media . . . that affect us more than we realize."
--The Boston Sunday Globe
" Mr. Tye succeeds wonderfully in illustrating the often creepy power of our opinion makers."
--The New York Times
"A remarkable look at the spinmeister who helped to invent
public relations . . . candid and enlightening."
--Kirkus Reviews
Publisher Web Site, January, 2003
Summary
The Father of Spin is the first full-length biography of the legendary Edward L. Bernays, who, beginning in
the 1920s, was one of the first and most successful practioners of the art of public relations. In this engrossing
biography, Larry Tye uses Bernays's life as a prism to understand the evolution of the craft of public relations
and how it came to play such a critical-and sometimes insidious-role in American life.
Drawing on interviews with primary sources and voluminous private papers, Tye presents a fascinating and revealing
portrait of the man who, more than any other, defined and personified public relations, a profession that today
helps shape our political discourse and define our commercial choices.
