The Election of 2004 website represents the first fruits of the SMU Center for Presidential History’s Collective Memory Project, an oral history project dedicated to enhancing the historical and archival record of the George W. Bush presidency and its times. By allowing historical participants and observers to tell their stories, in their own words, we aim to produce a powerful resource that will both enhance and complement sources already available from the respective historical period.

The website will feature approximately twenty interviews with key participants in and observers of the 2004 Election, including a major candidate, members of three presidential campaigns, political-party leaders, journalists and scholars. You can watch all of these interviews here. On the same page, you can also find links to read or download the complete transcriptions of these interviews for your own research.

The website also features new analyses of the people and issues surrounding the 2004 election, including articles from more than two dozen scholars of history, political science, and communications, from around the world. These articles, including the associated images, videos, and texts attached to them, function as both authoritative scholarship in their own right, as well as a hub and starting point for further study of the 2004 Election on the web, and beyond.