(Look here for some suggestions about rhetorical analysis of speeches.)

Students should definitely check back to this page from time to time as I plan to adopt a new approach to the TDs in the near future.

Week Five
(Nov 29 or Dec 6, depending on group.
Students should download these documents for the fifth week of TD meetings; they are .pdf (i.e., Adobe Acrobat) documents, and may take several seconds to open on your computer screen.)

• An excerpt of the speech John F Kennedy made on June 11, 1963 is here.
Kennedy, like Democratic president before him, had been reluctant to alienate Southern politicians and voters by coming out strongly in favor of civil rights legislation or indeed by denouncing the obvious injustices and violence that characterized the public treatment in the South and indeed the entire US of African-Americans (or "Negroes" the term virtually everyone used at the time). A number of factors motivated his decision to take a bolder stand, not least among them the undeniable fact, which he hints at broadly in the speech, that racial discrimination and racial segregation were extremely damaging to the international image of the US: he was concerned, among other things, that negotiations with the Soviet Union would be punctuated by richly deserved comments about the hypocrisy of a country that claimed to be founded on ideals of equality and liberty but which nevertheless discriminated so energetically between classes of citizens. Part of the rhetoric of the speech is motivated, then, by political considerations; this said, there is no denying that Kennedy set the standard high in calling the problem a moral issue.
• Martin Luther King, Jr. The text of the "I Have a Dream" speech is here.
When Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat to a white man on a bus in Montgomery, Alabama, she more or less deliberately set in motion what would come to be called the Civil Rights Movement. (The Montgomery Advertiser, the city's newspaper, has put a wealth of material on line here, including this article reporting the mass meeting at the church that Martin Luther King, Jr chaired.) Among the consequences of the movement in Montgomery was the media exposure it brought to the pastor of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, Martin Luther King, Jr. He is even better remembered for the "I Have a Dream" speech; a recording of the speech can be found here. In reading the speech, students should be alert to ways in which King used familiar terms and expressions from American history to bring his listeners to participate in the construction of the meaning of the speech.

• Barack Obama. An excerpt from his inaugural addess is here.
Barack Obama was sworn in as President of the US on Jan 20, 2009; as part of the ceremony, he gave this speech. Students should take note of ways in which he uses listeners' knowledge of US history (including recent events at the time of the speech, events of more distant history, oratorical history, etc.) as a means of bringing them into the world of the speech. The text of the whole speech, as well as a video, can be found here.

Week Four (Nov 14 or 21) Students should download these documents for the four week of TD meetings; they are .pdf (i.e., Adobe Acrobat) or .JPG (image) documents, and may take several seconds to open on your computer screen.)

• Slavery: Artistic and Musical Representations
• A Civil War-era engraving of episodes in the life of a slave who escapes to become a soldier.
• An engraving of a slave ship, with dimensions (in "English" measures, of course )
• A reproduction of J. M. W. Turner's painting of a slave ship
• The lyrics and scores of a few "Negro Spirituals".
• Excerpts from an article on spirituals that today would be considered ethnological by Thomas W Higginson, an abolitionist and proponent of women's rights who was appointed commander of an Army unit made up of African-Americans.
• Students who took my course in US history in 2nd year may remember this engraving of a slave ship, and this one of the inside of a slave auction house.
Students should give thought to echoes between some of these works, notably the episodes in the life of a slave and words to the spirituals.
• Students who wish to explore spirituals in greater detail may find the site called Sweet Chariot: the story of the spirituals at the University of Denver useful.

Week Three (Oct 25 or Nov 8) Students should download these documents for the third week of TD meetings; they are .pdf (i.e., Adobe Acrobat) documents, and may take several seconds to open on your computer screen.)

• Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address and 2nd Inaugural Address
Both of these speeches are rightly regarded as being jewels of American political oratory. Students should give thought, among other things, to the circumstances in which they were delivered and the audience they were intended for. The Gettysburg Address provides a fine example of how structure, including echoes of thematic and/or lexical elements, can be used to produce rhetorical effects. The Wikipedia articles on the Gettysburg Address (here) and the Second Inaugural (here) will provide some background information.

Week Two
(Oct 12 or Oct 19, depending on group.
Students should download both of these documents for the second week of TD meetings; they are .pdf (i.e., Adobe Acrobat) documents, and may take several seconds to open on your computer screen.)

• An excerpt from George Washington's Farewell Address
Students will be expected to have given some thought to how this passage reflects Washington's political position. The article on Washington at Wikipedia (here) may prove helpful (the portrait that illustrates the article is suggestive of Washington's distant demeanor), as may that on the address itself (here). This excerpt from my lecture about Washington may help students to remember a few key elements about him.
• The Virginia Resolutions of 1798
Students will no doubt find this text, with its legal jargon and elaborate grammatical structures, somewhat difficult to read. Students should concentrate on identifying rhetorical devices that express outrage and assert the perfidy of the opposing party and the good faith and sound reasoning of the authors. The Wikipedia article about the Virginia and Kentucky resolutions (here) may or may not prove to be of use.
• The first paragraphs of Thomas Jefferson's first inaugural address, in March, 1801.
  After the bruising and contentious election of 1800, in which political conflicts of various sorts reached a paroxysm, in particular regarding the appropriate roles for the Union and the States, Jefferson wanted to adopt a conciliatory tone, that would ease tensions between Federalists and Democratic-Reublicans.

Week One
(Sept 27 or Oct 4, depending on group.)
Students should download both of these documents for the first week of TD meetings; they are .pdf (i.e., Adobe Acrobat) documents, and may take several seconds to open on your computer screen.)

• "America"
Students will be expected to know something about the song, including date, place and author, with an eye to identifying influences on the text, and how it evolved (hint: look here; the Wikipedia page about "America" provides some information here); most of the necessarily brief discussion, however, will focus on rhetorical and poetic devices and on recurring themes.
• A short passage from John Smith's Description of (what he called) New England
The document is to a large extent an exercise in public relations, trying to attract new colonists to the New World; students will struggle with Smith's 17th century spelling and syntax, but should try to identify the main ways in which Smith's description might appeal to his prospective reader. (We will not spend an inordinate amount of time on this text, but it is entertaining to read...)
• The Declaration of Independence
Students will recall that we looked briefly at this iconic document last year in semester 4, and will be expected to know something about the background, including date, place and author(s), in order to identify influences on the text, and to have given some thought to what is radical in it... ; most of the discussion, however, will focus on rhetorical devices and on significant themes, including socio-economic phenomena that are not mentioned. [Potentially useful background material can be found here. The Wikipedia page may prove interesting: look here]
• Petition by Massachusetts Slaves
The petition calls upon the Massachusetts legislature to do for the slaves what it wants to do for itself: put an end to bondage and oppression imposed by an outsider. Students should give some consideration to the ways in which the identities of writer and reader affect the document. Events in the preceding few months also influenced the authors' choice of language and ideas.