Voices of History: Speeches That Changed the World
288
Voices of History: Speeches That Changed the World
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Overview
In this exuberant collection, acclaimed historian Simon Sebag Montefiore takes us on a journey from ancient times to the twenty-first century. Some speeches are heroic and inspiring; some diabolical and atrocious. Some are exquisite and poignant; others cruel and chilling. The speakers themselves vary from empresses and conquerors to rock stars, novelists and sportsmen, dreamers and killers, from Churchill and Elizabeth I to Stalin and Genghis Khan, and from Michelle Obama and Cleopatra to Ronald Reagan, Nehru, and Muhammad Ali.
All human drama is here: from the carnage of battlefields to the theatre of courtrooms, from table talk to audiences of millions, from desperate last stands to orations of triumph, from noble calls for liberation to genocidal rants, from foolish delusions and strange confessions to defiant resistance and heartbreaking farewells. Voices of History spans centuries, continents, and cultures. In the accessible and gripping style of a master storyteller, Montefiore shows why these seventy speeches are essential reading and how they enlighten our past, enrich our present, and inspire--as well as hold warnings for--our future.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781984898197 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group |
| Publication date: | 06/01/2021 |
| Sold by: | Random House |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 288 |
| File size: | 2 MB |
About the Author
Table of Contents
Introduction xix
Resistance
"This is a woman's resolve," AD 61 Boudicca 3
"The heart and stomach of a king," 8 August 1588 Elizabeth I 4
"Black lives have always mattered," 3 June 2020 John Boyega 6
"Let us die before we become slaves," AD 73 Eleazar Ben Yair 9
"Blood, toil, tears and sweat," 13 May 1940 Winston Churchill 14
"I am here as a soldier," 13 November 1913 Emmeline Pankhurst 17
Dreamers
"I have a dream," 28 August 1963 Martin Luther King Jr. 23
"Ain't I a woman?," 1863 version Sojourner Truth 29
"Wait till you see Muhammad Ali," 30 October 1974 Muhammad Ali 33
Freedom
"We are not Europeans; we are not Indians; we are but a mixed species," 15 February 1819 Simón Bolívar 37
"I want liberty and equality to reign," 29 August 1793 Toussaint Louverture 39
"At the stroke of the midnight hour," 14 August 1947 Jawaharlal Nehru 40
"Rainbow nation," 10 May 1994 Nelson Mandela 42
"We shall fight on the beaches," 4 June 1940 Winston Churchill 45
Rise and Fall
"When they pull, I loosen," AD 7th century Muawiyah 49
"I have reigned with your loves," 30 November 1601 Elizabeth I 50
"This was their finest hour," 18 June 1940 Winston Churchill 52
"America is a place where all things are possible," 4 November 2008 Barack Obama 54
Decency
"Until every drop of blood drawn by the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword," 4 March 1865 Abraham Lincoln 61
"Ask not what your country can do for you," 20 January 1961 John F. Kennedy 64
"The ability of human beings to make and remake themselves for the better," December 2012 Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie 68
"One pen and one book can change the world," 12 July 2013 Malala Yousafzai 71
"I have faith in the righteousness of our cause," 11 March 1930 Mohandas Gandhi 74
"Are women persons?," February-June 1873 Susan B. Anthony 77
"We will be with our friends; we will be with our families; we will meet again," 5 April 2020 Elizabeth II 81
Battlefields
"I am personally going to shoot that paper-hanging sonofabitch Hitler," 5 June 1944 George S. Patton Jr. 87
"You have Alexander," November 333 BC Alexander the Great 89
"Today, our nation saw evil," 11 September 2001 George W. Bush 91
"Tread lightly there," 19 March 2003 Tim Collins 93
"A date which will live in infamy," 8 December 1941 Franklin D. Roosevelt 96
Defiance
"I will not be triumphed over," 30 BC Cleopatra 101
"In the name of God, go!," 20 April 1653 Oliver Cromwell 102
"Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!," 12 June 1987 Ronald Reagan 104
"The Few," 20 August 1940 Winston Churchill 107
Terror
"By God I'll grind you down to dust," Kufa, Iraq, AD 694 Al-Hajjaj ibn Yusuf 111
Josef Stalin and others, "These swine must be strangled," 4 December 1936 Nikolai Yezhov 112
"Declare the Caliphate," 29 June 2014 Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi 116
"The greatest pleasure," 13th century Genghis Khan 117
"America is struck," 7 October 2001 Osama bin Laden 118
"Virtue and terror," 5 February 1794 Maximilien Robespierre 121
Trials
"The unexamined life is not worth living," 399 BC Socrates 129
"Shoot me quietly," 3 February 1940 Nikolai Yezhov 135
Follies
"No whitewash at the White House," 30 April 1973 Richard Nixon 143
"Peace for our time," 30 September 1938 Neville Chamberlain 146
"I am at the head of the strongest army in the world," 11 December 1941 Adolf Hitler 147
Power
"Imperial purple is the noblest burial sheet," AD 532 Theodora 157
"We need new blood," 16 October 1952 Josef Stalin 158
"Government of the people, by the people, for the people," 19 November 1863 Abraham Lincoln 162
"Make America great again," 16 June 2015 Donald Trump 164
"It is not power that corrupts, but fear," July 1991 Aung San Suu Kyi 170
"History is our best teacher," 14 May 2017 Xi Jinping 173
"While I may be the first woman in this office, I will not be the last," 7 November 2020 Kamala Harris Joe Biden 176
Peacemakers
"I have come to Jerusalem, as the City of Peace," 20 November 1977 Anwar al-Sadat 185
"Enough of blood and tears," 13 September 1993 Yitzhak Rabin 189
Revolution
"Dare, dare again, always dare!," 2 September 1792 Georges Danton 195
"The Chinese people have stood up!," 21 September 1949 Mao Zedong 196
"Power to the Soviets," September 1917 Vladimir Ilyich Lenin 199
"I shall smash this government in the teeth," February 1979 Ruhollah Khomeini 201
Warmongers
"Enter upon the road to the Holy Sepulchre," 27 November 1095 Urban II 205
"Carthage must be destroyed!," 149 BC Cato the Elder 209
Genocide
"The annihilation of the Jewish race in Europe," 30 January 1939 Adolf Hitler 213
"The Jewish people are going to be exterminated," 4 October 1943 Heinrich Himmler 214
Good vs Evil
"The perils of indifference," 12 April 1999 Elie Wiesel 221
"We are all guilty," 18 July 1998 Boris Yeltsin 227
"Hate, ignorance and evil," 10 November 1975 Chaim Herzog 229
Prophets
"Thou shall not kill," Exodus 20, Verses 1-26 Moses 237
"Blessed are the poor in spirit," Sermon on the Mount, St. Matthew's Gospel, AD 1st century Jesus of Nazareth 240
"Turn then your face toward the Sacred Mosque," from the Surah al-Baqarah ("The Cow"), Verse 2 (144-50), AD 7th century The Prophet Muhammad 242
Warnings
"We are not only scientists; we are men, too," 2 November 1945 J. Robert Oppenheimer 247
"We can't solve a crisis without treating it as a crisis," 3 December 2018 Greta Thunberg 249
Goodbyes
"Remain faithful to Perón," 17 October 1951 Eva Perón 255
"I've seen the Promised Land," 3 April 1968 Martin Luther King Jr. 259
Funeral address by his henchman, "Lord of the bravest tribes … fell neither by an enemy's blow nor by treachery, but … rejoicing," AD 453 Attila the Hun 263
"Nobody will ever write a book … about my mother," 9 August 1974 Richard Nixon 264
"Europe is not to be saved by any single man," 9 November 1805 William Pitt the Younger 269
"What an artist the world is losing in me," 9 June AD 68 Nero 270
"We do these things because of who we are," 1 May 2011 Barack Obama 273
"Soldiers of my Old Guard: I bid you farewell," 20 April 1814 Napoleon Bonaparte 278
"The woman I love," 11 December 1936 Edward VIII 279
"Depart!," August 324 BC Alexander the Great 281
"I go from a corruptible to an incorruptible crown," 30 January 1649 Charles I 287
"Nothing ends here; our hopes and our journeys continue, 28 January 1986 Ronald Reagan 290
Acknowledgments 295
Copyright Acknowledgments 297