Primary Sources: Speech Collections: Videos

This unique, six-part series places students of public speaking, American history, and political science front row, center at key speeches by the most eloquent orators of the 20th century. FDR, Huey Long, Generals MacArthur and Patton, and JFK share the podium with Barbara Jordan, Ronald Reagan, Mario Cuomo, Jesse Jackson, and others. Rare archival footage combined with insightful commentary from host Jody Powell puts each speech into historical perspective. Featured on History’s Best on PBS. 6-part series, 39-53 minutes each.

Original—and often rare—audio and video footage brings these American leaders into your classroom: Calvin Coolidge, Herbert Hoover, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry S. Truman, Dwight D. Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama.

This seven-part series, Great Speeches: Today's Women, offers important yet often impossible-to-find speeches by contemporary and historically influential women: from Barbara Jordan to Elizabeth Edwards; Margaret Thatcher to Michelle Obama; Sarah Weddington to Lilly Ledbetter; and Condoleezza Rice to Hillary Rodham Clinton. This collection presents noteworthy speeches that command attention not only for gender studies, but also for any serious study of historic public addresses. 7-part series, 66–135 minutes each.

This remarkable 30-part series features some of history’s most influential addresses—and continues to have a profound impact on the study of speech. With this classic archive, students can watch as FDR declares war, Churchill attacks Hitler, Harry Truman announces the bombing of Japan, Lou Gehrig bids farewell to baseball, Martin Luther King Jr. relays his dream, Nixon resigns the presidency, Reagan pleads the Berlin Wall be torn down, and a young Barack Obama ignites a 2004 convention in a speech that would change the course of the country. In their entirety, these speeches breathe life and relevancy into our history and clearly demonstrate the power of speech. Each is accompanied by a biography and analysis of both the event and the speech itself. As Walter Cronkite used to say, “You are there!” 30-part series, 70–160 minutes each.

This video features Elaine Brown discussing her views on race relations and feminism.

Eldridge Cleaver speaks at the 1981 Brigham Young University Freedom Festival.

President Ronald Reagan gives a speech about the Space Shuttle Challenger.

This video is a recording of Henry Kissinger's address on foreign policy at Wingate University.

This collection of speeches, featuring David Hilliard, Ericka Huggins, and Elaine Brown, is about the Black Panther Party movement.

President Obama holds a town hall meeting at Taylor Stratton Elementary School in Nashville, TN to discuss the progress made under the Affordable Care Act. July 1, 2015.