Business evangelism and the search for social harmony: 1891-1916

The crowd became a powerful cultural symbol in the mind of Gerald Stanley Lee, a former congregational minister turned advocate for a ruling elite of "inspired millionaires" and "attention engineers.". This article underscores the climate of business evangelism surrounding Lee's thought during the Progressive Era, a climate which ultimately rationalized what others later labelled public relations. Lee advocated a culture controlled by media-wise businessmen and political personalities; it was a vision startlingly similar to the reality that has come to pass in our own era of Ronald Reagan and Ross Perot. Dr. Bush is an associate professor in the Department of History at the University of Miami, Coral Gables.