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Speeches of the American Presidents, 2nd Edition

Posted By: IrGens
Speeches of the American Presidents, 2nd Edition

Speeches of the American Presidents, 2nd Edition edited by Janet Podell, Steven Anzovin
English | June 2001 | ISBN: 0824210069 | PDF | 1050 pages | 5.3 MB

This new edition of Speeches of the American Presidents contains more than 200 major speeches by the 43 presidents of the United States, from George Washington, elected in 1788, to George W. Bush, elected in 2000. Twenty-five new speeches have been added, covering the end of Ronald Reagan’s second term, the presidencies of George Bush and Bill Clinton, and the inauguration of George W. Bush.

Speechmaking is one of the classic devices for communication between the chief executive and the people he represents, one of the methods by which he announces policy, acquires the loyalty of special interest groups, tries to subvert the will of Congress when it suits his purposes, and unifies the nation in time of crisis. Speeches of the American Presidents is intended to give readers, especially students, a useful way to study the presidency—its development as an institution and the individual presidents’ management of events in their administrations—through the words of the presidents themselves. Although many of the presidents delivered important speeches in their pre- and postWhite House years, in order to keep the book to a reasonable length we have, with a few exceptions, included only speeches made during each president’s term in office. Most are reprinted in full from the public record; some very long speeches have been excerpted. Because of the relative scarceness of extant speeches for the earlier presidents, we have included some of their annual messages (now called State of the Union Messages) in the present volume, despite the fact that during the years between Jefferson and Wilson these messages were read to Congress by a clerk rather than by the president himself.

The speeches in this collection were chosen with two main purposes in mind: first, to demonstrate the growth of speechmaking as a political tool over the 212-year span of the presidency, with specific reference to developments in communications technology; second, to illustrate something of each president’s character and to cover as many of the important issues of each administration as possible (subject, in the case of the earlier presidents, to the limitations of what is available). A special effort has been made to include speeches from the pre-modern presidents that comment on issues of concern to Americans today, including intervention in foreign affairs; minority rights; taxation; defense spending; and the eternal argument over the benefits and dangers of a strong federal government. Even the long story, told through speeches, of the fight over slavery and the survival of the Union holds lessons for modern readers interested in the progress of controversies over abortion and other polarizing issues.