AMERICAN RHETORIC is a website containing over 5000 full-text audio and video versions of public speeches and other significant historical audio.
The Speech Bank is a database contains public speeches, sermons, legal proceedings, lectures, debates, interviews, and other media resources. Users can search by keyword or browse alphabetically. The works may include audio, video, a transcript, and/or links.
Of particular note is the Top 100 Speeches. This section contains significant American political speeches of the 20th century. The Rhetorical Literacy section includes 49 important speeches of 21st century America. Other areas of the website include speeches by President Obama, movie speeches, and figures in sound. A scholars section explores resources of interest to researchers and academics. Finally, an exercise section provides classroom resources.
Librarians will find the website contains many of the important speeches used in K-12 government and history classrooms. English teachers will find the figures of speech section particularly useful.
Although the advertising can be distracting the content is worth the hassle.
To visit the website, go to http://americanrhetoric.com.
