History of State of the Union Addresses
Lectures in History
C-SPAN
4.2 • 737 Ratings
🗓️ 5 February 2023
⏱️ 69 minutes
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| 0:00.0 | This week on the Lectures and History podcast, a discussion about the history of State of the Union addresses. |
| 0:10.0 | Stonehill College Professor Peter Ubertaceo describes George Washington's first address. |
| 0:16.0 | He explores how since then State of the Union speeches have evolved along with new technology and, in modern times, |
| 0:22.1 | have been used to bolster political platforms. |
| 0:26.3 | So today we are going to discuss the State of the Union address. |
| 0:31.1 | And we're going to do it by using Jeffrey Toulas to our benefit. |
| 0:35.6 | So just to recap a little bit. |
| 0:38.4 | The State of the Union address straddles the two constitutional presidencies that Jeffrey Toulis defined in your readings. |
| 0:45.7 | The first one, as you recall, that first Big C constitutional presidency, these are the formal |
| 0:52.8 | rules and procedures that define our system. |
| 0:57.5 | And also, the formal expectations placed upon the executive during the founding era. |
| 1:04.8 | The Big C constitutional presidency is one that proscribes popular leadership. |
| 1:11.6 | The second one, the small C constitutional presidency, |
| 1:16.6 | this is a creation of our progressive presidents, |
| 1:20.6 | and it has been built up since the time of Woodrow Wilson. |
| 1:24.6 | And the small C constitutional presidency prescribes popular leadership. |
| 1:31.3 | It demands it of presidents. |
| 1:34.3 | And if you recall from your readings, that big C, formal structure of the Constitution, |
| 1:41.3 | and the small C, popular presidency, that these exist |
| 1:45.8 | uneasily with one another in the modern era. We'll pick up on this again later today. |
| 1:53.7 | We discussed earlier in the semester that, in part, thanks to our friend Governor Morris, |
| 2:04.7 | Article 2 of the Constitution has far less specificity in it than Article 1. Does anyone recall why that is the case? Grace? Hamilton wanted |
... |
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