American Rhetoric
"Rationalize rhetoric and it speaks to your mind, personify her and she speaks to your soul"
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This broad ranging web site exploring all aspects of rhetoric includes an Online Speech Bank of over 5.000 audio and video versions of public speeches, sermons, legal proceedings, lectures, debates, interviews, and other recorded media events.
See also Top 100 Speeches, Movie Speeches and more.
More Online Sources
- Speeches on Social JusticeFull text of speeches relating to social justice, historical and contemporary.
- Forest of RhetoricA guide to the terms of classical and renaissance rhetoric created by Dr. Gideon Burton of Brigham Young University.
Speeches in the NU Library Collection
Notable Speeches in Contemporary Presidential Campaigns by Call Number: Available onlineISBN: 0275975738Publication Date: 2002-03-30
Great Speeches by Frederick Douglass by Call Number: Available onlineISBN: 9780486288956Publication Date: 2013-04-29
Some Definitions
Rhetoric
The art of using language effectively so as to persuade or influence others, esp. the exploitation of figures of speech and other compositional techniques to this end; the study of principles and rules to be followed by a speaker or writer striving for eloquence, esp. as formulated by ancient Greek and Roman writers.
In the Middle Ages rhetoric was included in the seven liberal arts and was taught as part of the trivium (seeTRIVIUM n.).
In the Middle Ages rhetoric was included in the seven liberal arts and was taught as part of the trivium (see
Trivium
In the Middle Ages, the lower division of the seven liberal arts, comprising grammar, rhetoric, and logic.
Definitions from the Oxford English Dictionary Online