Better Living - Advertising, Media, and the New Vocabulary of Business Leadership, 1935-1955

Examining the years from the Depression to postwar prosperity, Better Living follows the dissemination of a politically competitive claim of "more," "new," and "better" in industry and in life. Beginning with the changes in business-government relations during the New Deal, this study looks at the ways in which politically active corporations and their leaders learned how to speak-at a time when speaking had to be both entertaining and persuasive.

"Bird has produced a sophisticated and specialized study, valuable for readers interested in business and political history, advertising and media history, and labor and corporate public relations." --Choice

"[Bird] brilliantly shows how advertising, public relations, and network executives all pushed business towards embracing a dramatic rhetoric they distrusted. His argument is rich; his evidence equally so."--H-Net