The Penguin Book of Historical Speeches

Author: Brian MacArtherPublisher: PenguinYear: 1996Language: EnglishPages: 504ISBN/UPC (if available): 0140176195 DescriptionThis selection brings together the words of over a hundred men and women - from Moses to Mandela - who helped to change the world through the sheer power of their oratory.In 1969 Betty Friedan proclaimed in an impassioned speech on women's rights, 'Today, we moved history forward'. Gladstone and Israeli, and Pitt and Fox before them, forged the politics of their age through ferocious verbal combat in the House of Commons. Abraham Lincoln transformed for ever the way American interprets the Civil War and their national destiny. A legacy of turmoil in Ireland; the revolutionary rhetoric of eighteenth-century France; and this century's catalogue of conflict are all represented in this definitive and incisive collection.PRAISE FOR THE BOOK:Macarthur's earlier selections, up to the late nineteenth century, are impeccable. He prefaces each address with a short but