Tag Cloud of Presidential Speeches: 1776 - 2006

Boing Boing points us to a wonderful tag cloud of US presidents' speeches from 1776-2006. The result is a time line of buzz words.

A tag cloud is a cluster of words (tags) which visually depicts frequency of usage. More commonly used words are displayed with a larger font, stronger emphasis, or different color. Created by Chirag Mehta, the US Presidential Speeches Tag Cloud looks at 360 presidential speeches downloaded from Encyclopedia Britannica and ThisNation.com. A little slider tool above the tag cloud allows you to select the tag cloud of particular speeches. Clicking on the name of speech takes you to the full text of the speech itself.

In the above example--George W. Bush's State of the Union Address (31Jan2006)--it's clear that terrorist is the most popular word in the speech. Compare that to Richard M. Nixon's First Inaugural Address (20Jan1969), where the key word is commitment, a word that is also popular in most of John F. Kennedy's speeches. In Abraham Lincoln's speeches, the emphasis changes over time from constitution to emancipation.