Edward L. Bernays is considered by many to be one of the most influential men in the history of American civilization. He was born in Vienna, Austria, on May 18, 1891. His father, Sigmund Freud's nephew, immigrated to the United States in 1902 and became a vice-president of the American Tobacco Company
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His father was also an admirer of Napoleon Hill's book "Think and Grow Rich" and gave his only son Bernays the book for his thirteenth birthday. Bernays attended Harvard University, graduating in 1912 with a degree in economics. He then went on to get a law degree from New York University School of Law in 1915.
After practicing law briefly, he became interested in psychology and began studying under Carl Jung at the Burghölzli Clinic in Zurich, Switzerland (where Freud had worked).
Bernays soon became an intimate friend of Carl Jung’s daughter, Emma Jung.
He started his professional career as a publicist for the Committee on Public Information (CPI) during World War I before he joined the U.S.
State Department (and later the U.S. Department of Commerce) as an adviser on publicity during World War II where he worked tirelessly promoting various government programs like Rural Electrification Administration (REA) and National Youth Administration (NYA).
Bernays is also famous for his work promoting modern feminism during the Roaring Twenties when he waged an all out war against women who refused to wear dresses and cover their hair with hats after they had attained the right to vote. Bernays hired “mascot” girls to dress up like bunnies at rallies across New York City to convince women that hats were not necessary since they had just voted for them!
Bernays is commemorated by both Columbia University’s Edward L.
Bernays Hall and his own public relations firm bearing his name which he founded in 1929 after leaving state service following World War II as a way for him to continue working as a publicist as well as being able to pursue his other interests such as psychology and politics without having to worry about conflicts of interest with government agencies where he had worked previously as a publicist or other work he would do after he retired from state service.
Today his great-grandson Daniel Bober operates a small mail-order business selling books written by Mr. Bernays’ great-grandson Daniel Bober which