"This handbook provides a comprehensive examination and review of the theory, academic research, and professional practices of the public relations discipline. Ninety leading scholars and practitioners from around the world provide insights into the historical and changing role of public relations in building relationships with ‘organizations, markets, audiences, and publics’ . . . . The extensive bibliography includes more than 2000 references, some multidisciplinary, which serve to enhance understanding of public relations. The detailed index is user friendly. A must for academic collections serving scholars, practitioners and students, upper-level undergraduate and graduate"

"This handbook provides a comprehensive examination and review of the theory, academic research, and professional practices of the public relations discipline. Ninety leading scholars and practitioners from around the world provide insights into the historical and changing role of public relations in building relationships with ‘organizations, markets, audiences, and publics’ . . . . The extensive bibliography includes more than 2000 references, some multidisciplinary, which serve to enhance understanding of public relations. The detailed index is user friendly. A must for academic collections serving scholars, practitioners and students, upper-level undergraduate and graduate"

The Handbook of Public Relations is another in the series of communication handbooks which has distinguished Sage Publications. Like its companion handbooks, it offers a comprehensive and detailed examination of the topic. It gives students, scholars, and practitioners a solid review of the status of the scholarly literature, stressing the role that public relations can play in building relationships between organizations, markets, audiences, and the public. The handbook is divided into five sections. The first defines the field, seeking to explain the role public relations play in society. The second section examines the state of the practice by delving into the cutting edge issues of management, ethics, gender, evaluation, public relations education, and media. The third section challenges academics and practitioners to identify the best practices that shape the daily activities of practitioners. The fourth section looks at the fascinating and daunting challenges the new communication technology pose for scholars and practitioners. The fifth section takes a global view, examining theories in international public relations as well as the trends in practice that will shape the field in the coming years.

No other book in public relations is as comprehensive in its inclusion of authors and its coverage of academic research, theory, and best practices. Global in scope, the book’s contributors comprise an academic "who’s who" of the public relations discipline. The Handbook offers one-stop shopping for the best insights into the definition of the field of public relations, the practice, and best practices. It has substantial insights into the impact of new communication technologies and the global challenges of international public relations. A must-have reference for libraries and practitioners, the book also is ideal for upper level and graduate study of public relations.

Robert L. Heath (Ph.D., University of Illinois), is Professor of Communication at the University of Houston, Director of the Institute for the Study of Issues Management, and Advisory Director of Research for Bates Churchill Southwest. His Handbook of Public Relations won the 2001 PRIDE Award for best publication. With co-editor Elizabeth Toth, he won the PRIDE Award in 1992 for Rhetorical and Critical Approaches to Public Relations. He won the Pathfinder Award in 1992 and the Jackson, Jackson, and Wagner Award in 1998. His other books are Management of Corporate Communication: From Interpersonal Contacts to External Affairs (1994); Human Communication Theories and Research: Concepts, Contexts, and Challenges (1992, with Jennings Bryant); Strategic Issues Management (1988); Realism and Relativism: A Perspective on Kenneth Burke 1986); Issues Management: Corporate Public Policymaking in an Information Society (1986, with Richard Alan Nelson); and Strategic Issues Management (1997), which also won a PRIDE Award. 

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