Cool Speech Archives and Resources

American Rhetoric
http://www.americanrhetoric.com/
As the name suggests, the site provides numerous speech texts (many with audio and some with video) of speeches from US history. The site is searchable as well as having a speech bank you can browse. Of special note is the site's ranking of the 100 Top Speeches from the 20^th century US (All rankings have their drawbacks, but it remains a nice selection of 20^th century American rhetoric.). My favorite speech resource, though certainly not all-encompassing.

The History Place — Great Speeches Collection
http://www.historyplace.com/speeches/previous.htm
Pop-up ads aside, this site provides speeches from authors as divergent as Saint Francis of Assisi, George W. Bush, and several Popes. What the collection lacks in length it makes up for in variety. I consider it the coolest site on my list.

Gifts of Speech
http://gos.sbc.edu/
This site dedicates itself to collecting and making available women's texts. A broad selection of orators makes this site doubly useful. Most speeches are contemporary, but the site provides a good base for feminist rhetorical studies.

Presidential Speech Archive
http://millercenter.org/president/speeches
An interesting collection of presidential speeches from all periods of our history.

The Living Room Candidate
http://www.livingroomcandidate.org/
Oh my gosh! Presidential campaign commercials and short films from 1952 on. I can lose quite a bit of time watching them. Too much fun!

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