Promoting Monopoly

AT&T and the Politics of Public Relations, 1876-1941

Karen Miller Russell, Carolyn Bronstein

• Publisher: Peter Lang Inc., International Academic Publishers
• Year: 2020
• Print ISBN:
  9781433147340
• eBook ISBN:
  9781433147357
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Commerce
• Subtopic: Déontologie des affaires

Since the invention of the telephone in 1876, publicity has been central to the growth of the industry. In its earliest years the Bell company enjoyed a patent monopoly, but after Alexander Graham Bell's patents expired, it had to fight competitors, the public, and the U.S. government to maintain control of the telephone network. It used every means its executives could imagine, and that included constructing one of the earliest and most effective public relations programs of its time. This book analyzes the development of public relations at AT&T, starting with a previously forgotten publicist, William A. Hovey, and then including James D. Ellsworth and Arthur W. Page, who worked with other Bell executives to create a company where public relations permeated almost every aspect of work, leveraging employee programs, stock sales, and technological research for PR. Critics accused it of disseminating propaganda, but the desire to promote and protect the Bell monopoly propelled the creation of a corporate public relations program that also shaped the legal, political, media, and cultural landscape.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Contents
• Illustrations
• Preface
• Acknowledgements
• 1: “A Necessary Adjunct to Nearly All Commercial Enterprises”: The Rise of Corporate Publicity in the United States
• 2: “To Undertake Something in the Missionary Line”: William A. Hovey and Corporate Publicity at American Bell, 1876–1903
• 3: “A Largely Random Basis”: AT&T, Competition, and the Publicity Bureau, 1903–1907
• 4: “One Policy, One System, Universal Service”: Educating the Public, 1908–1913
• 5: “We Are Really Governed by Publicity”: Institutionalizing Public Relations, 1913–1926
• 6: “To Serve Well We Must Earn Well”: AT&T’s Financial Policy and the Great Depression, 1927–1934
• 7: “All Business in a Democratic Country … Exists by Public Approval”: The FCC Investigation, 1935–1941
• Conclusion: “The Number One Public Relations Post in Industry”: AT&T in U.S. Public Relations History
• Index