WHEN I BEGAN the research for this book-attempting to dis the social and historical roots that would explain the boundless role of public relations in our world-one of my first stops along the way was a sojourn with Edward L. Bernavs, a man who, beginning in the 1910s, became one of the most influential pioneers of American public relations, a person whose biography, though not widely known, left a deep mark on the configuration of our world.