The Penguin Book of Historic Speeches

Front Cover
Brian MacArthur
Penguin Books, 2012 - History - 503 pages
From Moses to Nelson Mandella, speeches have helped both change the way we see the world and the way the world is shaped. A great orator, however, has to have the right words and the right message to inspire his or her followers. The Penguin Book of Historic Speechesgathers together the world's greatest speeches, bringing together the words of over one hundred men and women. These brilliant and passionate declarations by Disraeli, Lincoln, Gladstone, Churchill, Washington, Socrates, Pankhurst, Lenin, Gandhi and many others provide a vivid glimpse of history in the making while retaining their power to move and inspire today. 'Impeccable. MacArthur prefaces each address with a short but scholarly historical explanation that sets the scene perfectly. An attractive volume with a splendidly pithy introducton.' Andrew Roberts, Sunday Times'MacArthur wisely concentrates on certain political conflicts - gathering together the oratory of the American Civil War or the campaign for female suffrage. His book works well not just as an anthology but as a history of those episodes.' Independent on Sunday

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About the author (2012)

Brian MacArthur was born in Essex, England on February 5, 1940. He was working for the Sunday Times during the Hitler Diaries scandal of 1983. He left the Sunday Times shortly after the scandal to became editor of the Western Morning News. After two years there, he became the founding editor of Today. He left Today in 1987 to rejoin the Sunday Times. From 2006 to 2010, he was the books editor of the Daily Telegraph. He wrote several books including Deadline Sunday, Surviving the Sword, For King and Country, and Eddy Shah: Today and the Newspaper Revolution. He edited The Penguin Book of Modern Speeches. He died of leukemia on March 24, 2019 at the age of 79.

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