Studies in Public Address
CAS 475, Public Address, explores speeches and arguments from significant moments and debates in the United States. In this course, you will explore public address and public arguments made by people with varying roles and attitudes in regard to social issues. We will be looking at public address through the lens of social movements to better understand how leaders in movements, allies, and politicians use rhetoric to argue for their views. This approach will let us better understand the conversation into which famous and infamous speeches were uttered. We will explore the rhetorical constraints and opportunities that are shaped by a speaker’s social, political, and economic place in society, as well as the constraints and opportunities shaped by broader public discourse.
Throughout this course, you will closely examine some of the most prominent arguments made in U.S. history on a range of topics. You will encounter these arguments in famous (and infamous) speeches and other varieties of forms of public address in U.S. history, and you will read and write critical analyses of those speeches. As we examine and reflect upon some of the most important arguments of the past century, we will:
Investigate their historical context, the problems, controversies, and events that inspired them, and how they were received at the time.
Assess their broader political or cultural significance.
Evaluate their rhetorical artistry.
Reflect upon their legacy and their relevance to ongoing political and social controversies.
Course Goals
By examining public address from the past century and a half, you will gain a better understanding of American history and politics and the persistent issues and controversies that have shaped our nation’s history. As you study the history of American public address, you will become a more informed citizen and a more critical consumer of speeches in the “marketplace of ideas.”
Objectives
Understand the role of speech and debate in the American democratic tradition.Demonstrate a sophisticated understanding of the rhetorical principles underlying the art of public speaking and other forms of public address through analysis and evaluation of public arguments.Evaluate the use of rhetorical techniques used by speakers in different roles and consider how one's position shapes their argument and rhetorical choices.Explain how the format of public address shapes messages.Explain the role of speech in shaping U.S. history, politics, and social traditions.Analyze how American national identity is shaped through public address.Evaluate public address to better understand principles of democratic citizenship.
Organization
This course is divided into units that consider different social, political, and economic issues facing the U.S. In each unit you will read commentary on Canvas, several speeches delivered from movement leaders, allies, or members as well as speeches from presidents or others in institutional positions of power. You will encounter opposing arguments, and sometimes arguments that you oppose. You will also read analytical articles or historical essays. Through it all, you will evaluate the rhetorical techniques speakers use to advance their ideas and move audiences.For a typical lesson, you will complete the following activities and assignments:Explore online course content.Read a few assigned readings.Write brief summaries of one primary and one secondary source assigned for that week.Submit two discussion questions for the good of the order.In addition, you will write three papers throughout the course.
Online Learning and Attendance
This course is conducted synchronously. We will meet via Zoom (unless we reach a consensus that another platform is preferable) during our class time on Monday, Wednesday, Friday of each week during the semester. Because of the strange nature of this semester, I do not have a singular attendance policy to allow for illness and extenuating circumstances without penalizing peoples' grades unnecessarily. That said, attendance and enthusiastic participation are expected from every student in the course. I reserve the right to subtract points from your final grade for lackluster participation and attendance across the entire semester. Being logged into the Zoom call is not enough to constitute participation: thoughtful attention to the reading and earnest engagement with the discussion is expected from everyone in the class.If you do need to miss class for extenuating circumstances, I will record each class discussion and post links to Canvas periodically. These recordings are not a substitute for class attendance and participation. They are a backup if ill or facing technological difficulties that inhibit a seamless course experience.
Weekly Focus & Semester progress
Week 1: Introduction to Public Address
Week 2: Labor Rhetoric I
Samuel Gomper—What Does the Working Man Want?
Eugene Debs—Industrial Unionism
James Darsey, “The Prophets Call and His Burden: Eugene V. Debs
Week 3: Labor Rhetoric II
Mother Jones—Speech at a Public Meeting on the Steps of the Capitol. Charleston, West Virginia
Michael Moore—America Is Not Broke
Mary Haman, “Mary Harris ‘Mother’ Jones” Voices of Democracy
Week 4: Immigration & Labor
Cesar Chavez & the United Farm Workers Movement
Cesar Chavez—Statement on Ending Fast
Stacey Sowards, “Rhetorical Functions of Letter Writing: Dialogic Collaboration, Affirmation, and Catharsis in Dolores Huerta’s Letters”
Week 5: Immigration & National Identity
Barack Obama—Address on Comprehensive Immigration Reform
George H.W. Bush and Ronald Reagan—Debate on Immigration in 1980
Remarks by President Trump on the Illegal Immigration Crisis and Border Security
J. David Cisneros, “A Nation of Immigrants and a Nation of Laws: Race, Multiculturalism, and Neoliberal Exception in Barack Obama’s Immigration Discourse”
Jennifer Mercieca, “The Rhetorical Brilliance of Trump the Demagogue”
Week 6: Slavery & American National Identity
Kenneth Greenberg, “Revolutionary Ideology and the Proslavery Argument: The Abolition of Slavery in Antebellum South Carolina”
Thomas Dew—Defense of Slavery
Frederick Douglass—What to a Slave is the Fourth of July
Week 7: Race & the Quest for Equality
Booker T. Washington—Atlanta Cotton States Exposition Address
W.E.B. Du Bois—Of Mr. Booker T. Washington and Others
David Howard-Pitney, “The Jeremiad of Frederick Douglass, Booker T. Washinton, and W.E.B. Du Bois and Changing Patterns of Black Messianic Rhetoric, 1841-1920”
Week 8: Civil Rights & Black Power Rhetoric
Week 9: Presidential Rhetoric & Quest for Racial Equality
Week 10: Rhetoric of Black Lives Matter Movement & Contemporary Racial Inequality
Week 11: Gender and Sexuality Social Movements
Week 12: Rhetoric & Early American Women’s Rights Movement
Week 13: Challenging Gender Roles in Commencement Addresses
Week 14: Women’s Rights & Human Rights
Week 15: Course Recap & Contemporary Social Movements