Landmark Speeches in Democracy and Dissent

This course surveys the landmark primary texts in American public address that shape our notions of democracy and dissent and their role in national and everyday life. The reading schedule proceeds in roughly chronological order from 1776 to 2021. Taking a rhetorical approach, students will critically read these primary texts with an eye to how they persuade, construct, suggest, or move their audiences to see their citizenship and national identity in a particular light.

Conducted synchronously on Zoom, Spring 2021.

Readings include: Thomas Paine, Federalist Paper 84, Tecumseh, Petalsharo, Sojourner Truth, Frederick Douglass, Abraham Lincoln, Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Ida B. Wells, Anna Howard Shaw, Crystal Eastman, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Douglas MacArthur, Malcolm X, Stokely Carmichael, Martin Luther King Jr., Barbara Jordan, Mario Cuomo, Ronald Reagan, Hillary Rodham Clinton, Elie Wiesel, Stephen Colbert, Barack Obama, and Robert Gates.