Public Relations and the Making of Modern Britain Stephen Tallents and the Birth of a Progressive Media Profession

Public relations was established in Britain by a group of liberal intellectuals in the aftermath of the slump. Central to the startling story of Britain’s early public relations pioneers is Sir Stephen Tallents, the inaugural President of the Institute of Public Relations. Tallents was a public sector svengali who lent his patronage to John Grierson’s documentary film movement, the BBC Overseas Service, the development of Listener Research, and the staging of the Festival of Britain. A portrait of how the social, economic, and media revolutions of early twentieth century reshaped national life, Public Relations and the Making of Modern Britain reveals a country struggling to cope with austerity and crisis that is at once very different from, and yet surprisingly similar to, our own. This volume includes the first reprint of Tallents' influential The Projection of Englandin over fifty years, and will interest students and scholars of media studies and modern British culture, history, and politics.