Presidential Speeches

The essays in Halford Ryan's The Inaugural Addresses of Twentieth-Century American Presidents explore how presidents have used their addresses to empower themselves in office. The volume's construct holds that the president delivers persuasive speeches to move the Congress and the people, and to move the people to move the Congress if it is intransigent. Even on Inauguration Day, a largely ceremonial occasion, the president seeks acquiescence and action from Congress and the people in his first rhetorical deed as the nation's chief executive officer. Since scholars agree that the rhetorical presidency arose in the twentieth century with Theodore Roosevelt, the book commences with Roosevelt's address, followed by all subsequent presidents' inaugurals - including that of Bill Clinton. The authors' methodology applies classical rhetoric to the nexus of political discourse - the interrelationships among the speaker, the speech, and the audience - discussing vox populi, elocutio, inventio, and actio. Each of the,chapters analyzes the political situation with regard to political purpose, giving special attention to genre criticism and to the themes of campaign rhetoric that were or were not carried forth into the inaugural address. The essayists explicate the evolution of each inaugural's preparation, criticize its delivery, and evaluate its persuasive strengths and weaknesses by accounting for its reception by the media and by the American people. Recommended for scholars of political communication and rhetoric, political science, history, and presidential studies.

The presidency, in Theodore Roosevelt's famous words, is a "Bully Pulpit." Humes, a former White House speechwriter, here gives us a unique perspective on presidential speech writing. No other book has examined the major presidential addresses--their construction and their impact--as history, and no one has studied the presidency from this vantage point. This is a vital study of American political history seen through the prism of selected presidential addresses. It reveals how presidents used major addresses to give a theme for their administration, to introduce history-making legislation or programs, or to rally a majority of the nation behind their policies.

Friedenberg examines William Henry Harrison's first ever speech by an American presidential candidate on behalf of his own candidacy as a prelude to the detailed examination of notable contemporary campaign speeches. Key speeches by John F. Kennedy, Barry Goldwater, Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, Bill and Hillary Clinton, and George W. Bush are analyzed.

This new short anthology rounds out Ronald Reagan's rhetorical persona and fills a major gap in the literature about the man by offering an unbiased and a multi-dimensional picture of his public speeches during all phases of his political life. The 51 speech texts are arranged, with short introductions, into six topical chapters covering his Hollywood years, his eight years as governor of California, his presidential campaigns of 1976 and 1980, and his two terms as president. This compact reference provides a representative collection of speeches on major issues, and includes a short bibliography pointing to major sources and important studies as well as a full index.

This reference combines a critical analysis of Ronald Reagan's style as a public speaker with a set of selective speeches and an extensive bibliography of primary and secondary sources. The work covers Reagan's oratory from the motion picture industry to political candidate, governor of California, and president of the United States, showing how he used mass media as a pulpit and commanded the TV media at the end. A chronology is provided of his major speeches, along with a full index.

This volume examines the combination of personal characteristics and artistic choices that made Nixon a successful, albeit extremely controversial, public speaker. The book is based on Nixon's own writings and primary materials found in special collections, as well as a number of rhetorical studies by communications scholars, and historical case studies.

This first book-length analysis of Kennedy's public address defines how he aroused Americans to action. This rigorously researched study offers both an in-depth analysis about the development of President Kennedy as a public speaker with a balanced view of his civil rights, foreign policy, presidential, and other types of speeches. Eight speech text accompany the analysis, along with a selected chronology of major speeches and a bibliography of important primary and secondary sources. This is a reference/teaching tool for students, teachers, and professionals in the fields of rhetoric, political communication, presidential studies, and American history.

Silvestri provides a chronicle of the political and social contexts for John F. Kennedy's 18-year career as a public communicator and political leader. He offers communication analysis of his years in politics, his campaigns, debates, and use of television on issues that became landmark communication efforts, elevating his charismatic presidency.

This first book-length study of Ike's consummate skills as a communicator shows how he used language as a weapon to achieve carefully conceived strategic purposes in the Cold War. If he seemed befuddled, he knew exactly what he was doing and why, used half-truths, was intentionally ambiguous and indirect, choosing his audiences and times deliberately and tactically. An expert in communication for this period provides an analysis of his speaking, extracts from important speeches, a selected chronology of speeches, and the most comprehensive bibliography of Eisenhower as an orator yet to be published, drawing on extensive primary and secondary material.

Harry Truman is famous for his plain speaking, and his presidential rhetoric is evaluated in terms of his most important speeches relating to the Cold War, Korean War, and whistle-stop campaigning to win a remarkable election victory, and his summation of his presidential role. This in-depth analysis of his major speeches as president, texts, chronology, and bibliography give insights into presidential rhetoric and communications research.

Basing his findings on his own detailed reading of Roosevelt's speeches and supplementing it with his own research in the primary collections of Roosevelt's manuscripts, Friedenberg reveals the depth of Roosevelt's fascinating rhetorical career.

This first systematic critique on the rhetoric of 21 presidents shows how political constraints shaped rhetoric and how oratory shaped politics. An introduction places American public address in the context of classical rhetorical practices and theory and sets the stage for the bio-critical essays about presidents ranging from Washington to Clinton. Experts analyze the style and use of language, important speeches and their impact, and their ethical ramifications. Each essay on a president also keys major speeches to authoritative texts and offers a chronology and bibliography of primary and secondary sources. For students, teachers, and professionals in American public address, political communication, and the presidency.