100 Greatest Speeches: The Words That Changed History, from the Buddha to the Twenty-First Century

100 Greatest Speeches tells the stories behind the words that changed history, shows exactly why they worked, and prints the full text of every speech that is in the public domain, from Pericles to Reagan, so you can read the words for yourself.

ONE HUNDRED SPEECHES, TWENTY-FIVE CENTURIES, EVERY INHABITED CONTINENT

From the Buddha's first sermon at Sarnath to Volodymyr Zelenskyy's wartime address to Congress, this book travels far beyond the usual Anglo-American anthology. Stand with Pericles in the Kerameikos, Luther at Worms and Elizabeth I at Tilbury. Hear Frederick Douglass ask what the Fourth of July means to the enslaved, Vivekananda greet the "Sisters and Brothers of America", and Emmeline Pankhurst explain why women were ready to starve for the vote. Listen to Gandhi's "Do or die", Nehru's midnight tryst with destiny, Tunku Abdul Rahman's seven cries of "Merdeka!", Nkrumah in Accra, Lumumba before the Belgian king, Sukarno at Bandung, Wen Yiduo hours before his assassination, Martin Luther King Jr. at the Lincoln Memorial, Mandela from the dock, Lee Kuan Yew's moment of anguish, Romero's last homily, Havel's honest New Year, Malala at the United Nations, and many more.

THE MOMENT, THE SPEAKER, THE WORDS, THE LEGACY

One chapter for each of the hundred speeches, built the same way so you can compare across the ages:

- The Moment: the crisis, the stakes and the audience that made the speech necessary

- The Speaker: who they were at that instant, and what they risked

- The Text: the complete speech for the 52 speeches in the public domain, in the original English or a named public-domain or new translation (a few very long speeches abridged, with every cut marked); for speeches still in copyright, a guided account with brief quotations and where to read and hear the authorised text

- How It Works: the rhetorical anatomy, with a table of the devices at work

- Delivery and Reception: how it was actually spoken and how it landed

- Legacy: what changed because of it, and how it has been remembered or misremembered

SEE THE SHAPE OF A GREAT SPEECH

A unique "speech architecture" chart maps how much of each speech every movement occupies and how its emotional temperature rises and falls. Two photographs or historic artworks accompany every profile.

RATED, RANKED AND ARGUED OVER

Each speech is scored from 0 to 100 per cent on eight attributes: Rhetorical Craft, Emotional Power, Clarity of Argument, Delivery and Presence, Courage and Stakes, Immediate Impact, Memorability and Enduring Legacy. Every score comes with a one-sentence reason, and an appendix ranks all one hundred. Agree or disagree, you will never hear these speeches the same way again.

HONEST ABOUT THE RECORD

Many famous speeches survive only as later reconstructions, and many famous lines were never said quite as we remember them. This book tells you what the evidence actually shows, corrects popular myths, and treats even notorious speeches, such as a call to crusade and a Nazi propaganda rally, as cautionary studies in the power of words.

LEARN TO SPEAK LIKE THE GREATS

The Preface explains what makes a speech great and sets out the speaker's toolkit, from Aristotle's ethos, pathos and logos to anaphora, antithesis and the rule of three. The appendices draw out the patterns across all hundred, profile fifty more speeches that came close, and turn the lessons into practical advice for anyone who must stand up and speak: students, teachers, managers, best men and maids of honour, campaigners and leaders.

Also included: a glossary of rhetorical terms, the hundred by region, a timeline, and a guide to sources and further reading.

Ideal for history lovers, students of politics and rhetoric, public speakers and speechwriters, teachers, debaters, and anyone who has ever been moved by a few well-chosen words.