Medieval propaganda, longue durée and New History: Towards a nonlinear approach to the history of public relations

• Public relations is a longue durée phenomena.
• The history of PR is a part of the Annales notion of history of mentalities.
• The work conducted by Le Goff suggests the existence of a hidden historiography of PR.
• Historical approach to public relations can be nonlinear.

This article offers a new perspective on the historical approach to public relations by drawing from the work of French medievalist Jacques Le Goff, who was the principal representative of the Nouvelle Histoire (New History) French historiographical movement. Based on the notions of mentality and longue durée, which Le Goff inherited from the Annales movement, we propose that a nonlinear approach to the history of public relations will help to extend its time scale back to the beginnings of civilization. This seeks to overcome the historical boundaries usually established between the prehistory (or proto-history) and the history of public relations as a profession.