I listened to most of the speeches this year and was quite impressed with Barack Obama. I also enjoyed several of the other speeches. iTunes has all three night up as free downloads (Day One, Day Two, Day Three). They also have a number of the individual speeches up. I personally recommends the speeches by Bill Clinton, Al Gore, Barack Obama, and of course John Kerry. I think it is great that these are available for free download, and look forward to the RNC speeches being posted (though I am not looking forward to the content of them). They have also posted the 9/11 Commission hearings.
In 11th grade I had a history teacher who felt very strongly that using history books anything more than a supplemental reference did not give one a grasp of history. We have all heard the anecdotes about inaccurate history books. So in my 11th grade American History course I spent a lot of time reading speeches, legislation, and court rulings. I think it was a great thing. In college history courses I was much better prepared, and I often knew where to look for some great quote for a paper, or what to analyze to prove my point. I think that easy availability of audio of various political speeches going forward is a wonderful thing, since it will make a lot of historic speeches more easily accessible, and more exciting.
Posted by louis at August 4, 2004 12:38 PM | TrackBack