2021-04-08
The bestselling, prizewinning historian and novelist assembles speeches from historical figures.
Like penmanship, rhetoric no longer occupies a central role in a liberal education, and many contemporary readers may be surprised to learn that listening to public oratory was once considered an afternoon’s family entertainment. But there is no doubt that stirring speeches have marked significant historical events, deplorable as well as admirable. Although Montefiore, winner of the Costa Biography Award, among many other honors, maintains that “speech has never been more powerful because television and Internet have never been more dominant,” his choices reveal that speeches often inspire an audience but rarely change their minds. Featuring more than 80 chapters, the book begins in ancient Greece and moves all the way through the end of 2020. Until recent centuries, all speeches were fictionalized. Plato wrote everything attributed to Socrates, Arrian described the words of Alexander the Great, and Matthew quoted Jesus, all long after their deaths. Historians maintain that these speeches recorded accepted tradition, which is not reassuring. Writers assume a modest degree of literacy in their audience, but public speakers aim to reach every listener. Archaic prose makes pre-20th-century rhetoric sound dignified, but modern examples often seem to be addressed to the least educated. The admirable sentiments of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris after their Nov. 7, 2020, election victory are expressed through high-minded clichés. Donald Trump’s 2015 speech announcing his candidacy for president deserves inclusion because it heralded a dramatic shift in American politics, but it’s nothing more than subliterate bombast. Montefiore does not ignore villains—e.g., Robespierre, Stalin, Hitler, bin Laden—whose speeches merely affirm their villainy without being especially interesting. Readers of this selection of primary sources will understand why we love diligent historians, which Montefiore most certainly is. They do the boring work (reading primary sources) and fashion a fluid narrative from the research.
A veteran historian collects an easy paycheck for a book best suited to devoted students of world history.
