The Penguin Book of Historic Speeches

Brian MacArthur brings together the words of over a hundred men and women - from Moses to Mandela - who changed the world through the sheer power of their oratory. Gladstone and Disraeli, and Pitt and Fox before them, forged the politics of their age through ferocious verbal combat in the House of Commons. Abraham Lincoln transformed forever the way Americans interpret the Civil War and their national destiny. Churchill, Kennedy and Martin Luther King inspired generations with their hopes and dreams. The world's most effective speakers, argues MacArthur, have always known how 'to move hearts or inspire great deeds, to uplift spirits or cast down enemies'. His definitive collection demonstrates that claim with many rousing examples.