CAS 210Landmark Speeches on Democracy and Dissent

3 credits · Communication Arts and Sciences · Penn State

Landmark Speeches on Democracy and Dissent offers a survey of key speeches, debates, and controversies making up the rich tradition of U.S. civic life. The course is designed to introduce students to the basic historical contexts within which these key events arise; engage them in close readings of speeches, tracts, and polemical writing; and develop skills in critical thinking and writing. Students will attend to a broad spectrum of voices, including those of historically under-represented peoples as well as canonical figures. Landmark Speeches on Democracy and Dissent thereby encourages students to develop a broad rhetorical literary in the diverse democratic voices that have long contributed to essential U.S. arguments about nationhood, protest, war, race, gender, religion, and more. The course presupposes that students will be able to apply this rhetorical literary to both participation within and critical thinking about contemporary forms of democracy and dissent.