PRESIDENTIAL INAUGURALS - THE MODERNIZATION OF A GENRE

Campbell and Jamieson (1990) point to the unification of the nation an d the veneration of traditional values as the most fundamental element s that distinguish presidential inaugural addresses as a rhetorical ge nre. A content analysis of unification and veneration themes in the fi fty-two inaugural addresses, 1789-1993, documents the modernization of the genre. Over the course of two centuries, presidents have made inc reasing use of the inaugural for purposes df unification and veneratio n, thereby progressively using the address as an instrument of governa nce as well as a rite of passage.