In 1933, John W. Hill opened the New York office of what would become the most important public relations agency in history: Hill & Knowlton, Inc. By 1959, the firm had a payroll of 250 employees around the world and was ranked as the best in its business by journalists and other public relations practitioners.

The Voice of Business, the first full-length study of a single public relations firm, chronicles the influence exerted by Hill & Knowlton on American public discourse in the years following World War II.