Voices of American Presidents

fdrstamp2.jpgHere’s another example of podcasts that bring the past back to life. Thanks to Michigan State University, you can listen to audio recordings of twenty modern American presidents (iTunesFeedWeb Site), starting with Grover Cleveland (1892) and ending with GWB. The recordings mostly taken from inauguration addresses and State of the Union speeches include some good historical finds. Here you get Teddy Roosevelt blasting the elite’s subversion of the popular will, FDR speaking of an enduring democracy, Harry Truman calling for a lasting peace after World War II, JFK outlining the US response to the Cuban Missile Crisis, and Bill Clinton touting the longest peacetime economic expansion in modern American history.

For more archives of presidential speeches, here are a few other collections worth checking out:

FDR: A Presidency Revealed (iTunesFeedWeb Site) Presented by the History Channel, this collection features some of FDR’s famous speeches, including his Fire Side Chats and his first inaugural address. (“There is nothing to fear but fear itself.”)

Presidential Archives Uncovered (iTunesFeedWeb Site) Produced by the Presidential Libraries of the National Archives, this collection presents clips of presidents’ serious policy discussions as well as their personal conversations with family members. Includes talks by Presidents Hoover, Roosevelt, Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush, and Clinton.

Truman Library Podcasts (iTunesFeedWeb Site) Among these recordings you will notably find a lengthy talk by David McCullough, Truman’s Pulitzer Prizing Winning biographer.

The Speeches of John F. Kennedy (iTunesFeedWeb Site) A new but still small collection. Looks poised to grow, however.


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