This is a speech by Aaron Swartz "How We Stopped SOPA" delivered on May 21, 2012, at the Freedom to Connect Confence. He explains their efforts to stop the passage of the COICA: The Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeit Act. It...

This is the audio and text of Elie Wiesel's speech "The Perils of Indifference" delivered on April 12, 1999, Washington, D.C. He discusses his experience in German concentration camps during the Holocaust and the dangers on indifference.

This is Eleanor Roosevelt's address to the United Nations on its adoption of the Declaration of Human Rights on December 9, 1948 in Paris, France; it is provided in a YouTube video, mp3 audio, and in text. [3:30]

This is the text and audio of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s famous speech, "I've Been to the Mountaintop" delivered on April 3, 1968, at Mason Temple (Church of God in Christ Headquarters), in Memphis, Tennessee.

This is President Clinton speaking at the prayer memorial for the bombing of Oklahoma City delivered on April 23, 1995, in Oklahoma City, OK. It is offered in YouTube Video, mp3 audio, and text [9:11]

This is the text, audio, and video of the Columbine High School memorial address delivered by Al Gore on April 25, 1999, in Columbine, Colorado, following the shootings and deaths at Columbine High School.

This is the text and audio of Alexander Solzhenitsyn's commencement address at Harvard University on June 8, 1978.

This is the text and audio of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's first Fireside Chat "The Banking Crisis" on March 12, 1933, in Washington D.C.

This is a video and transcript of John Kerry's testimony to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on the topic of the horrors committed by American soldiers in Vietnam and the resulting anger and suffering their participation in the war...

This article discusses the use of rhetoric in The Tragedy of Julius Caesar and the young Shakespeare's likely education in the art of rhetoric. In Julius Caesar, rhetoric is used to exert power over the commoners, to recruit...

This is the text and audio of Albert Einstein's speech at the fifth Nobel anniversary dinner on December 10, 1945, at the Hotel Astor in New York City.

This is the text of Abraham Lincoln's famous speech, "The Gettysburg Address," delivered November 19, 1863, in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. This page also offers audio readings by six famous people: Johnny Cash, Jeff Daniels, Jim Getty,...

This is the swearing in of Gelald R. Ford as President of the United States on August 9, 1974, after President Nixon resigned. After taking the oath of office, Ford speaks to the country. Offered in mp3 audio and in text.

This is the texts of Abraham Lincoln's First Inaugural Address delivered March 4, 1861, in New York, NY. It includes four PDF files: the Forward, the Original Draft, Editorial Changes, and the Final Draft.

This multi-session lesson features the opportunity to analyze a variety of famous speeches. Students will look carefully at tone, rhetoric, propaganda techniques, and historical context as they write an analysis paper....

The denial of the Holocaust, anti-Semitic rhetoric and the growth of hate groups has led many European nations to pass laws criminalizing hate speech to stop the resurrection of Nazism in Europe. This article discusses individual...

See how Ronald Reagan's rhetoric evolved from his speech calling the Soviet Union an "evil empire" to his signing of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty by examining photographs and documents.

This lesson provides an insight into the rhetoric and social action of Fannie Lou Hamer. By focusing on three speeches through her career, students will better be able to understand how she was able to influence social change.

This is an interactive collection of the top 100 speeches in order of their popularity; most include the text and audio of the speech and several also offer the video. RI.9-10.9 US Documents

This site is provided for by the Brigham Young University. Almost anything you would want to know about rhetoric and speech is here with great examples and explanations. Intended for a college-level audience, but plenty for younger...

How do you get what you want, using just your words? Aristotle set out to answer exactly that question over two thousand years ago with a treatise on rhetoric. Camille A. Langston describes the fundamentals of deliberative rhetoric and...

Wikipedia provides a detailed definition of figure of speech, and then includes hyperlinks to different types of figures of speech.

This PDF is a critique form for evaluating informative speeches. SL.9-10.3 Eval Presentation. CCSS.ELA-LiteracySL.3, SL.9-10.3 Eval Presentation

This lesson from a unit on 20th Century and Modern Poetry focuses on Sir Winston Churchill and his award-winning speeches during WW II. It features links to a brief history "England in World War II," a Winston Churchill biography, a list...