New Eleventh Edition Now Available!

Set to be released in a new eleventh edition, Contemporary American Speeches serves as a core textbook in courses such as Contemporary Public Address, Rhetorical criticism, and Contemporary Speakers and Speeches. The publication integrates 27 speeches by well-known speakers that typify current public scrutiny of some of society’s most pressing questions.

Continuing the diversity of different voices , the new eleventh edition of Contemporary American Speeches:

includes new speeches based on suggestions from users of previous editions and the authors’ teaching experience, as they selected addresses that generated student discussion and insight. presents speeches from 1960 to the present with primary emphasis on the first two decades of the twenty-first century. integrates introductory headnotes that proceed each speech. These headnotes provide background information and pose questions to aid in evaluation. has been updated! Each chapter essays develops criteria useful in exploring and evaluating the various forms of public speaking. It features a robust section on diverse public speaking traditions as influenced by culture and gender, important additions on narration as a rhetorical technique, and a new section on Civility in Public Discourse.