A choice of worlds; the practice and criticism of public discourse

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Pt. 1: The rhetoric of public discourse

Introduction: the study of public discourse

Practical and critical principles

Pt. 2: Speeches for analysis and criticism

The primacy of the audience

Critical introduction: peace among ourselves: Lincoln, King, and the rhetoric of unity

Second inaugural address / Abraham Lincoln

I have a dream / Martin Luther King, Jr

Identification: the audience and the topic

Critical introduction: seeking old and precious moral values: Bright and Roosevelt redefine the topic

The angel of death / John Bright

First inaugural address / Franklin D. Roosevelt

Identification: the audience and the speaker

Critical introduction: the rhetoric of power and personality: Kennedy and Johnson and the ethos of the presidency

Ich Bin ein Berliner / John F. Kennedy

We shall overcome / Lyndon B. Johnson

The quality of reasonableness

Critical introduction: reason in compromise and crisis: Franklin and Wilkins on the republican experiment

On the constitution / Benjamin Franklin

Keynote address to the NAACP annual convention / Roy Wilkins

The pattern of a speech

Critical introduction: common efforts for the common good: patterning in the speeches of Jefferson and Churchill

First inaugural address / Thomas Jefferson

Address to the congress / Winston S. Churchill

The style of a speech

Critical introduction: the language of dissent: style in the speeches of Malcolm X and John V. Lindsay

The ballot or the bullet / Malcolm X

Vietnam moratorium address / John V. Lindsay