Public Relations As Activism

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A POSTMODERN VIEW OF PUBLIC RELATIONS HISTORY

No universal history leads from savagery to humanitarianism, but there is one that leads from the slingshot to the megaton bomb.

(Adorno, as cited in Steven Best [1995, p. 20])

Humanity does not gradually progress from combat to combat until it arrives at universal reciprocity, where the rule of law finally replaces warfare; humanity installs each of its violences in a system of rules and thus proceeds from domination to domination.

(Foucault, 1980, p. 151)

Historical narrative is not benign and can have significant consequences. History in public relations is no exception. For instance, one of, if not the, best-known histories of public relations is the presentation of the four historic models ...