In The God Strategy, scholars David Domke and Kevin Coe offer a timely and dynamic study of the rise of religion in American politics, examining the public messages of political leaders over the past seventy-five years-from the 1932 election of Franklin Roosevelt to the early stages of the 2008 presidential race. They conclude that U.S. politics today is defined by a calculated, deliberate, and partisan use of faith that is unprecedented in modern politics.

To determine how the use of moral rhetoric has changed over time, Shogan employs content analysis of the inaugural and annual addresses of all the presidents from George Washington through George W. Bush. This quantitative evidence shows that while presidents of both parties have used moral and religious arguments, the frequency has fluctuated considerably and the language has become increasingly detached from relevant policy arguments.

In this masterful work, J. Michael Hogan offers the first detailed analysis of Wilson's speeches on the tour, including the most celebrated speech of the campaign, his address in Pueblo, Colorado. Assessing the tour in light of Wilson's own scholarly writings, Hogan provides a new understanding of this watershed event in the history of American public address.

Through their rhetoric, presidents help to create the frame for the American public's understanding of immigration. In an overarching essay and ten case studies, Who Belongs in America? explores select moments in U.S. immigration history, focusing on the presidential discourse that preceded, addressed, or otherwise corresponded to events.

During World War II, the home front offered unprecedented levels of moral, financial, and labor support for the war effort. This was no accident. Through the U.S. Treasury Department's war bond drives, Franklin D. Roosevelt's administration strategically cultivated national morale by creating the largest single domestic propaganda campaign known to that time.

Focusing on the text of Reagan's speech, author Mary Stuckey shows how President Reagan's reputation as "the Great Communicator" adds significance to our understanding of his rhetoric on one of the most momentous occasions of his administration.

For George H. W. Bush, the distinction between campaigning ("politics") and governing ("principles") was crucial. Once in office, he abandoned his campaign mode and with it the rhetorical strategies that had brought electoral success. Not recognizing the importance of rhetoric to policy formation and implementation, Bush forfeited the resources of the bully pulpit and paid the price of electoral defeat.

The campaign of 1896 gave the public one of the most dramatic and interesting battles of political oratory in American history, even though, ironically, its issues faded quickly into insignificance after the election. It marked the beginning of the use of the news media in a modern manner, saw the Democratic Party shift toward the more liberal position it occupies today, and established much of what came to be considered the Republican coalition.

For a century and a half the words of presidents have framed, expressed, and sometimes challenged the civil rights policies of America. The eleven essays in this book examine the ways in which American presidents and their administrations have defined the meaning of civil rights from Rutherford B. Hayes to William Jefferson Clinton.

As Mary Stuckey observes, presidents embrace, articulate, and reinvigorate our sense of national identity. They define who Americans are—often by declaring who they aren’t. In this book, she shows how presidential speech has served to broaden the American political community over the past two centuries while at the same time excluding others. . . . click here to read more

Green Talk in the White House gathers an array of approaches to studying environmental rhetoric and the presidency, covering a range of administrations and a diversity of viewpoints on how the concept of the "rhetorical presidency" may be modified in this policy area. . . . click here to read more

Here Beasley traces rhetorical constructions of American national identity in presidents’ inaugural addresses and state-of-the-union messages from 1885 through 2000. She argues convincingly that while the demographics of the voting citizenry changed rapidly during this period, presidential definitions of American national identity did not. . . . click here to read more

Thomas W. Benson examines two speeches and a press conference held by JFK in the days after the crisis, shedding light on how the structures of speech writing influence the texts of the speeches and policy formation, as well as the ways the press mediates and even helps to formulate presidential rhetoric. . . . click here to read more

Robert Kraig’s path-breaking study of Wilson’s political philosophy of the oratorical statesman traces the classical influences on him as a young man, the development of his full- blown scholarly philosophy of oratory, and his use of rhetoric as governor of New Jersey and president of the United States. . . . click here to read more