this week a lecture on presidential speeches and public opinion focusing on the

1970s through the 1990s with Claremont-McKenneprofossor John Pitney here he discusses

President Ronald Reagan's speech on the Soviet Union this was very controversial at the time because many people wanted to have closer relations

with the Soviet Union, and the perception was that by using the term evil, we would be

provoking the Soviet Union.

More from Professor Pitney in a moment.

Welcome to our discussion of presidential speeches through history.

And the first point I want to make is that for the first century and change of American history,

presidents didn't really give all that many speeches.

We have seen President Washington's farewell address,

which was ghost written.

Who ghost wrote it?

Hamilton, of course.

And if you saw the play, there is the famous song one last time. The thing, though, people call it an address. Washington never gave it as a speech. Washington never gave that address as a speech.

It was all in writing. Presidents gave inaugural addresses, occasionally gave speeches on other occasions.

But if they communicated with the public, it was generally in writing,

sometimes official presidential messages, sometimes unofficial political communications through

proxies. Political allies would put out material supporting their political position.

That happened quite a bit in the 19th century.

Why was this? Because the norms were different. There was an expectation that presidents

shouldn't give a lot of speeches, shouldn't try to be demagogic.

By now you've read the Federalist papers.

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