Books in the Great American Orators series

This rigorously researched study offers an in-depth analysis of the development of President Kennedy as a public speaker and a balanced view of his civil rights, foreign policy, presidential, and other types of speeches.

The book also contains a bibliography of works by and about Henry Ward Beecher, texts of his important speeches and sermons, and a Chronology of Sermons and Speeches that is keyed to Beecher's various publications.

In this third volume of Greenwood's Great American Orators series, Logue delineates the oratory career of Eugene Talmadge whose public speaking illustrates the use--and some would say the abuse--of a most necessary democratic institution: free speech in the political arena.

Though much has been written about Charles G. Finney, "The Father of Modern Revivalism", most works have concentrated on his roles as an educator and political reformer. This study examines the rhetorical skills and techniques that made Finney the first contemporary evangelist.

Examines Eisenhower's skills as a communicator, showing how he used language to achieve carefully conceived strategic purposes in the Cold War. If he seemed befuddled, he actually knew exactly what he was doing and why, using half-truths, ambiguity and the right audience to his own ends.

This work opens with an assessment of Mark Twain as a great American orator and then appraises his rhetoric, lectures and occasional speeches, and summarises his impact on his listeners. It shows how he used humour and varying styles to achieve his effects.

A speech chronology and bibliography pointing to important primary and secondary materials further enrich this Great American Orators reference tool for students, scholars, and professionals in rhetoric, history, and American studies.

Like no other orator in American history, Daniel Webster dominated the Federal courts, the Congress, and the public speaking circuit. In this book, Smith offers a close study of the rhetorical techniques and powers of persuasion that gave Webster a uniquely influential voice in the political, legal, and social affairs of the young republic. The volume includes the edited texts of six speeches that illustrate the range of Webster's achievements, together with a chronology of his speeches and an annotated bibliography.In his introduction, Smith examines Webster's early training and accomplishments in the field of oratory and discusses the Aristotelean principles upon which the present analysis of Webster's work is based. Smith begins with Webster's forensic speeches before the Supreme Court and in the famous Knapp-White murder trial. He next considers Webster's gift for ceremonial speaking, by analyzing examples of his eulogies, dedication addresses, and other commemorative speeches. Two chapters focus on his deliberative speech-making, with special emphasis on analysis of the audience Webster spoke to, the Webster-Hayne debate, and Webster's speeches endorsing the Compromise of 1850. Among the edited works presented are Webster's presentations in McCulloch v. Maryland, a milestone in American constitutional precedent; in the Knapp-White murder case; his Eulogy to Adams and Jefferson; Webster's second reply to Hayne; and his Seventh of March Address. The author stresses that Webster's importance goes beyond his considerable impact on constitutional thought and the political life of the nation. His speeches are unequaled as models of effective and literate public address, and his arguments, values, style, and use of evidence have much to tell us about American consciousness during the antebellum era. Written by a noted speechwriter and scholar specializing in rhetoric and First Amendment issues, this book is an appropriate choice for speech communication classes or studies in speech communication, American public address, and rhetorical criticism, as well as antebellum U.S. history classes.

Harry Truman is famous for his plain speaking, and his presidential rhetoric is evaluated in this reference in terms of his most important speeches relating to the Cold War, the Korean War, and themes that helped him win a remarkable election victory in 1948. This in-depth analysis of his major presidential speeches, collection of his most important addresses, chronology of speeches during his presidency, and bibliography will give students, scholars, and professionals in communications and mass media, political science, and American history new insights into this interesting president and important period in American history.Professor Ryan examines Presidents Truman's speeches and addresses from 1945 to 1953, closely showing how his Truman Doctrine speech and Inaugural Address sounded the leit motifs of Manichaean, SuperNation rhetoric that innervated the Cold War. His rhetoric on the Korean War burdened his presidency because it held to an early military definition of the war. His exchanges with General Douglas MacArthur were oblique rather than frontal attacks, which presented further problems. His whistle-stop election campaign against Thomas E. Dewey and his valedictory address are used also to assess his rhetorical themes and expression and their effectiveness. The chronology and bibliography are framed also to help researchers dealing with materials in a presidential library.

From I Shall Return to Old Soldiers Never Die, General MacArthur's phraseology invariably captured an audience's attention. Part I is a critical analysis of MacArthur and his speeches, while Part II contains the texts of the addresses discussed. In their analysis, the authors avoid extremes of praise or blame.

Frederick Douglass was one of the great 19th-century American orators and an important spokesman for African Americans. This book traces the development of his rhetorical skills, discusses the effect of his oratory on his contemporaries, and analyzes the specific oratory skills he employed.

Although much has been written about Richard Nixon the man and the politician, comparatively little attention has been paid to Nixon the public speaker.

The selected speeches of Senator Margaret Chase Smith of Maine made throughout her 32 year career in the U.S. Congress are critically analyzed in this rhetorical study. Thus this work will be of interest to students and scholars of U.S. politics, communications, and women's studies.

As Americans moved from farms and small towns to large cities, they tended to lose a hallmark of their earlier life: comparatively direct participation in the discourse of pragmatic affairs.

These collected speeches and speech reports include The Parsons' Cause Case, the conclusion of the Caesar-Brutus speech in the Stamp Act Debate of May 1765, the Liberty or Death speech, two speeches from the Ratifying Convention Debate, and Patrick Henry's defense in the British Debts Case.

This work also provides texts of representative speeches, a chronology of important speeches, and a bibliography of primary and secondary sources. The critical analysis points first to Frances Willard's belief in evolutionary Christianity and the equal treatment of women as the basis for her oratory.

Although much has been written about Abraham Lincoln, there has been little rhetorical analysis of how this public man communicated with his listeners.

If Edward Everett is remembered at all today, it is as the orator who gave the other speech at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania on November 19, 1863. Ironically, Everett's oration, which was given wide coverage in contemporary newspapers, was recognized as both epideictic and argumentative. Everett defended the Union cause, whereas Lincoln's speech was strictly ceremonial. A second irony that attends Everett's oratorical career is that his countrymen believed him to be one of the great orators of the time, the undisputed master of ceremonial address. In this first new study of Edward Everett's oratory, author Ronald Reid addresses the historical and oratorical paradoxes that have influenced perceptions of Everett's career. Reid reconstitutes the role of epideictic rhetoric in the United States from the end of the Revolutionary War to the eve of the Civil War and reinstates Everett in the pantheon of great American orators. He demonstrates why Everett fell into virtual obscurity and treats the reader to a penetrating analysis of the role of public persuasion in the United States during a critical period in its history. In Edward Everett: Unionist Orator Reid effectively restores Everett to his rightful rostrum in the unfolding national drama from the 1820s to the 1860s, providing a sweeping story of America's golden age of oratory in the process.The book opens with a discussion of the influence of Everett's eighteenth-century heritage on his desire to save the Union at all costs. The author shows how the seeds of Everett's Unionism were starting to sprout in his literary and theological speeches and writings, and how he developed the rhetorical methods that he would use throughout his career. Next, Reid deals with Everett's oratory during his years of service, first as a congressman and then as governor of Massachusetts. Here he discusses Everett's increasing concern about the divisiveness of the partisan and sectional causes he espoused. Chapters three and four deal with Everett's modification of his earlier Unionist strategies in an effort to deal with increasing sectionalism and preserve the United States. In conclusion, Reid reviews Everett's oratory, speculating about the role of epideictic oratory in general in maintaining, or failing to maintain, social unity. Sample speeches complete the work, which include a partial text of one of Everett's congressional speeches, a 4th of July oration, his Character of Washington, and a partial text of Everett's Gettysburg address.

This reference combines a critical analysis of Ronald Reagan's style as a public speaker with a set of selected speeches and an extensive bibliography.

He reviled the rich for their cupidity and they found his rhetoric repulsive. Plebians believed him their champion and patricians knew he was their bete noire, remarks Halford Ryan in his eloquent foreword to this definitive survey of Clarence Darrow's development as orator and unique American myth. As a writer, lecturer, debater, and trial lawyer Darrow spoke for the have-nots and cultivated an image of mythic proportions as the underdog's advocate. Many of the more than 2,000 trials in which he was active reflected the major social and philosophical issues of the last quarter of the nineteenth and first third of the twentieth centuries in America. Read today, Darrow's speeches still ring true both as political statements and as models of persuasive pleading and pathos--reason enough to study the work of this uncommon advocate who stood perpetually opposed to the great and powerful of the earth. Richard J. Jensen has written a clearsighted volume that documents how Darrow created and then enlarged his personal myth through speeches, writings, and actions. Each chapter focuses on particular segments of that creation. Half of the book consists of authoritative texts of several of Darrow's most influential and rhetorically brilliant speeches, and a speech chronology simplifies the work of researchers.The study opens with a brief biography, an overview of Darrow's rhetoric, along with the forces that affected it, and some initial comments on the elements that make up the myth. The next chapter, Schoolmaster of the Courtroom, chronicles the origins of Darrow's image as a defender of the downtrodden and his early trials in defense of labor unions and their leaders. What is considered to be one of the most famous speeches in American legal history, that given by Darrow at the conclusion of the 1924 Leopold and Loeb trial, is the focus of Chapter Three. Chapter Four centers on the Scopes Trial, perhaps the most famous trial in recent American history, during which the dramatic confrontation with William Jennings Bryan occurred. The penultimate chapter explains the arguments Darrow used to defend the poor, radicals, Blacks, and other less fortunate members of society. Finally, Darrow's rhetoric as a writer and as an active speaker and debater on the lecture circuit is examined. Part II contains the authoritative texts of seven speeches including those given during the Leopold and Loeb Trial and the Scopes Trial, among others. The Chronology of Speeches, Bibliography, and Index close the volume. The speeches along with Jensen's intelligent, readable analysis and criticism will be an important resource for those teaching and studying Legal Rhetoric and the History of Public Address.

Waggenspack focuses on the rhetoric of an outstanding orator who has been hailed as one of the earliest and most outspoken advocates of women's rights issues. This needed addition to the history and criticism of American public address is based on Waggenspack's original research of the Elizabeth Cady Stanton papers and will facilitate not only the study of feminist rhetoric but will also meet the needs of those wishing to evaluate the effects of American public address and the impact of an advocate or speech upon history.

William Jennings Bryan is probably best remembered today for two rhetorical transactions: his The Cross of Gold acceptance speech, delivered at the 1896 Democratic national convention in Chicago, and his exchanges with Clarence Darrow in the 1925 Scopes Trial in Tennessee.

This reference is the only book-length work to analyze all of the major speeches of one of the most significant politicians of the first part of the twentieth century, Robert La Follette, Sr.

Phillips Brooks, author of the carol O Little Town of Bethlehem, was the rector of the Trinity Episcopal Church in Boston for 22 years and the Bishop of Massachusetts for 15 months until his death in 1893. This volume in the Great American Orators series focuses on Brooks' oratorical style and the public's response to his rhetoric.

Theodore Parker, a great orator of the mid-19th century, was a Unitarian clergyman who directed much of his oratory towards ecclesiastical and social reform. As a volume in the Great American Orators series, the focus is on Parker's oratory and its effect on theology and the social structures of the mid-19th century.

This work is an in-depth analysis of the full breadth of Sojourner Truth's public discourse that places it in its proper historical context and explores the use of humor and narratives as primary rhetorical strategies used by this illiterate ex-slave to create a powerful public persona.

In analyzing Jonathan Edwards preaching in eighteenth-century colonial America, the authors demonstrate how his rhetoric distinguished between conversion and persuasion. The authors delineate the basic tenets of Puritan theology, place Edwards' noted sermons within an historical framework, and show how his psycho-spiritual ideas have had lasting impact on American literary, religious, and intellectual history. This reference provides a critical analysis, speech texts, chronology, and bibliography. Students and teachers of rhetoric, American history, literature, philosophy, and religion will find this in-depth study of an enigmatic great American orator pertinent for various uses.The reference defines Edwards' doctrinal stance on key religious issues of the times, describes his methods of preaching and efforts to convert sinners into saints, and assesses his influence in the eighteenth century and later. The volume covers his life, his youth and education, his revival and role in the Great Awakening of religion in America, his church's rejection and his exile. This scholarly study relates his ideas to complex theological roots in European thought, to Christian and Enlightenment discourses, and it points to the enormous effect that he has had on thinking until the twentieth century. Texts of key sermons dealing with central concepts such as divine light, sinners, and true grace are provided.

With the publication of this book, the Reverend Anna Howard Shaw assumes her rightful place in the pantheon of great American orators. Finally, Shaw's public speaking efforts after she resigned as president, including her work for the war effort and the League of Nations, are also analyzed.