In this series of lectures, Professor Ken Masugi of Johns Hopkins University examines the importance of rhetoric in American politics. Political speeches have, since the nation’s inception, defined and shaped American politics. Professor Masugi demonstrates how the greatest American political speeches take their bearings from the Declaration of Independence and the Federalist Papers. As the lectures proceed, Professor Masugi investigates the rhetoric of America’s most revered statesman, Abraham Lincoln, before exploring the works of other transformational U.S. presidents, including Woodrow Wilson, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Ronald Reagan, and Barack Obama.

The coauthor, editor, or coeditor of seven books on American politics, Ken Masugi of Johns Hopkins University has been a speechwriter for two cabinet members. Examining the founding of the American political system through the classic works of Democracy in America author Alexis de Tocqueville, this course explores the big ideas of the American experiment. Taking into account matters from liberty and independence to self-government and civil associations, these lectures highlight issues of states’ rights, church and state, race, and public versus private charity.