Walter Lippmann and Edward Bernays are, without equivocation, two of the most important American intellectuals of the twentieth century due to their definitive works covering public opinion and its manipulation. While Lippmann theorized about public opinion on the sidelines, Bernays, acting as a “counsel on public relations,” played an active hand in its manipulation, “crystallizing” ideas for the American public which benefited his clients, some of whom were the most powerful men or corporations in the United States. The ideas of these two men were plausible thanks to not only the events of their formative years, particularly those of the First World War, but also the ideas of other men that came before them within the then rapidly developing fields of psychology and public relations; prominent figures include French sociologists Gustave Le Bon and Gabriel Tarde, American publicist Ivy Lee, and psychologist Sigmund Freud. This presentation, through an exploration of primary and secondary sources, seeks to explain the ideas of these two men and their foundations, to provide examples where their ideas were put into practice, and to propose what understandings can be rendered from these ideas as well as their consequences for modern society.