PRINT Books
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Ask Not: the inauguration of John F. Kennedy and the speech that changed America
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A narrative of Kennedy's quest to create a speech that would distill American dreams and empower a new generation, Ask Not is a beautifully detailed account of the inauguration and the weeks preceding it.
Call Number: STACKS J82.D91 C53 2011Publication Date: 2004 -
Lend Me Your Ears
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A compendium of more than two hundred classic and modern speeches includes Orson Welles eulogizing Darryl F. Zanuck, George Patton exhorting his D-Day troops, King Edward VIII abdicating his throne, and the never-delivered speech John F. Kennedy was scheduled to give in Dallas.
Call Number: STACKS PN6122 .L4 2004Publication Date: 2004 -
Steve Jobs
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Based on more than forty interviews with Jobs conducted over two years--as well as interviews with more than a hundred family members, friends, adversaries, competitors, and colleagues--Walter Isaacson has written a riveting story of the roller-coaster life and searingly intense personality of a creative entrepreneur who revolutionized six industries: personal computers, animated movies, music, phones, tablet computing, and digital publishing.
Call Number: QA76.2.J63 I83 2011Publication Date: 2011 -
We Are the Change We Seek
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Barack Obama's political life can be chronicled through a series of major addresses in which he spoke to the nation with a voice uniquely his own. His eloquence, both written and spoken, propelled him to national prominence and ultimately made it possible for the son of a Kenyan man and a white woman from Kansas to become the first black president of the United States.
Call Number: STACKS E891.5 .O335 2017bPublication Date: 2017 -
To the Mountaintop
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More than a biography, To the Mountaintop is the history of a turbulent epoch that changed the course of American and world history. Moral warrior and nonviolent apostle; man of God rocked by fury, fear, and guilt; rational thinker driven by emotional and spiritual truth -- Martin Luther King Jr. struggled to reconcile these divisions in his soul. Here is an intimate narrative of his intellectual and spiritual journey from cautious liberal, to reluctant radical, to righteous revolutionary. Stewart Burns draws not only on King's speeches, letters, writings, and well-reported strategizing and activities, but also on previously underutilized oral histories of key meetings and events, which present a dramatic account of King and the movement in the crucial years from 1955 to 1968. In a striking departure from earlier books on Martin Luther King Jr. and the civil rights movement, Burns focuses on King's biblical faith and spiritual vision as fundamental to his political leadership and shows how these threads wove together a "single garment of destiny," making King the most important social prophet of the twentieth century. King is not portrayed as a lone exalted hero, butas the heart of a fabric of principled leadershipthat stretched from his closest colleagues to the movement's foot soldiers on the streets. This book stresses his shaping by other leaders -- heroic figures such as Bayard Rustin, Ella Baker, James Bevel, Bob Moses, and Marian Wright Edelman -- and his conflicted relationships with John and Robert Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson. To the Mountaintop is uniquely powerful in presenting actual conversations between King and others, and in showing how King's public words often revealed his private torment. Burns provides a uniquely realist portrait of King and the civil rights movement by revealing the vital but neglected religious character of the story, and by demonstrating how King profoundly experienced the movement as a sacred mission following a path of liberation and sacrifice pioneered by Moses and Jesus.
Call Number: STACKS E185.97.K5 B798 2004Publication Date: 2003 -
Living History
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The author chronicles her eight years as First Lady of the United States, looking back on her husband's two administrations, the challenges she faced during the period, the impeachment crisis, and her own political work.
Call Number: STACKS E887.C55 A3 2003Publication Date: 2003 -
Becoming
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An intimate, powerful, and inspiring memoir by the former First Lady of the United States #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * WATCH THE EMMY-NOMINATED NETFLIX ORIGINAL DOCUMENTARY * OPRAH'S BOOK CLUB PICK * NAACP IMAGE AWARD WINNER * ONE OF ESSENCE'S 50 MOST IMPACTFUL BLACK BOOKS OF THE PAST 50 YEARS In a life filled with meaning and accomplishment, Michelle Obama has emerged as one of the most iconic and compelling women of our era. As First Lady of the United States of America--the first African American to serve in that role--she helped create the most welcoming and inclusive White House in history, while also establishing herself as a powerful advocate for women and girls in the U.S. and around the world, dramatically changing the ways that families pursue healthier and more active lives, and standing with her husband as he led America through some of its most harrowing moments. Along the way, she showed us a few dance moves, crushed Carpool Karaoke, and raised two down-to-earth daughters under an unforgiving media glare. In her memoir, a work of deep reflection and mesmerizing storytelling, Michelle Obama invites readers into her world, chronicling the experiences that have shaped her--from her childhood on the South Side of Chicago to her years as an executive balancing the demands of motherhood and work, to her time spent at the world's most famous address. With unerring honesty and lively wit, she describes her triumphs and her disappointments, both public and private, telling her full story as she has lived it--in her own words and on her own terms. Warm, wise, and revelatory, Becoming is the deeply personal reckoning of a woman of soul and substance who has steadily defied expectations--and whose story inspires us to do the same.
Call Number: STACKS E909.O24 A3 2018Publication Date: 2018
EBOOKS READ ONLINE
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African-American Orators
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This sourcebook assesses the unique styles and themes of notable African-American orators from the mid-19th century to the present. The analyses demonstrate how they have stressed the search for freedom, upheld American ideals, and condemned disriminatory practices.
Call Number: READ ONLINEPublication Date: 1996 -
Connecting with Constituents: Identification Building and Blocking in Contemporary National Convention Addresses
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Explores speeches delivered at national nominating conventions from historic, strategic, and analytic perspectives. Focusing on the strategies speakers use to appeal to particular facets of the American audience, this book illustrates the importance of nominating conventions as part of an ongoing national conversation about the political character of the country and its people.
Call Number: READ ONLINEPublication Date: 2015 -
Constructing Presidential Legacy
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Chapter 7 discusses the context of President Obama's Farewell Address.
Call Number: READ ONLINEPublication Date: 2018 -
Double-Consciousness and the Rhetoric of Barack Obama
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Contains an entire chapter about his speech "A More Perfect Union."
Call Number: READ ONLINEPublication Date: 2015 -
Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Preserver of Spirit and Hope
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Contains a chapter on the build up to WWII, the domestic debate between the isolationists and interventionists and FDR's speech following the attack at Pearl Harbor.
Call Number: READ ONLINEPublication Date: 2009 -
Hillary Clinton in the News: Gender and Authenticity in American Politics
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Chapter 3 discusses Hillary Clinton's trip to Beijing in 1995 for the U.N.'s Fourth World Conference on Women.
Call Number: READ ONLINEPublication Date: 2014 -
Ring Out Freedom!
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Martin Luther King, Jr. was more than the civil rights movement’s most visible figure, he was its voice. This book describes what went into the creation of that voice. It explores how King used words to define a movement. From a place situated between two cultures of American society, King shaped the language that gave the movement its identity and meaning.
Call Number: READ ONLINEPublication Date: 2003-11-20 -
Slipping the Surly Bonds: Reagan's Challenger Address
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Focusing on the text of Reagan's speech, the author shows how President Reagan's reputation as “the Great Communicator” adds significance to our understanding of his rhetoric on one of the most momentous occasions of his administration.
Call Number: READ ONLINEPublication Date: 2006 -
The Teleological Discourse of Barack Obama
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The Teleological Discourse of Barack Obama, by Richard Leeman, provides an in-depth analysis of President Barack Obama s speeches and writings to explain the power of the 44th president's speaking. Highly regarded for his eloquent and inspiring rhetoric, Obama is often compared to Roosevelt, Kennedy, and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. However, Leeman s study shows that Obama s teleological philosophy and discourse more closely resembles Ronald Reagan s rhetoric. "
Call Number: READ ONLINEPublication Date: 2012 -
The Will of a People: A Critical Anthology of Great African American Speeches
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Pairs the full texts of the most important African American orations with substantial introductory essays intended to guide the reader's understanding of the speaker, the speech, its rhetorical interpretation, and the historical context in which it occurred.
Call Number: READ ONLINEPublication Date: 2012
Use these suggested Library of Congress subject headings to find books and media, both print and online:
- Political oratory -- United States -- History
- Speeches, addresses, etc.
- Speeches, addresses, etc. -- History and criticism
- Speeches, addresses, etc., American -- History and criticism
- [Name of person] -- Oratory (Ex. Obama, Barack -- Oratory)
- Orators
- Oratory, Ancient
- African American orators
- Women orators