Public speeches have profoundly shaped American history and culture, transforming not only our politics but also our language and our sense of national identity. This volume (the first of an unprecedented two-volume collection) gathers the unabridged texts of 45 eloquent and dramatic American speeches delivered by 32 American public figures between 1761 and 1865, beginning with James Otis's denunciation of unrestrained searches by British customs officials--hailed by John Adams as the beginning of the American Revolution--and ending with Abraham Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address. Rich in literary allusions, vivid imagery, and emotional appeals, political oratory flourished during this period in Congress and at campaign rallies, public meetings, and reform conventions, and reached a wider audience through newspapers and pamphlets.

This revised edition contains several new speeches, many of which are taken from plays written and produced during the last five years. There are speeches for a variety of accents and ages to suit all audition requirements. An introductory section contains invaluable comments from directors, casting directors, actors and teachers. Among those contributing are Sir Peter Hall, National Theatre Director and founder of the Royal Shakespeare Company; Robert Palmer, voice teacher at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art; casting director Doreen Jones; Tim Reynolds, Principal of the Academy Drama School; stage and film dialect coach Penny Dyer; and Barry Grantham, director and exponent of Commedia dell'Arte.

Until recently, scholars assumed that women stopped speaking after they won the vote in 1920 and did not reenter political life until the second wave of feminism began in the 1960s. Nothing could be further from the truth. While national attention did dissipate after 1920, women did not retreat from political and civic life. Rather, after winning the vote, women's public activism shifted from a single-issue agenda to the myriad social problems and public issues that faced the nation. As such, women began to take their place in the public square as political actors in their own rights rather than strictly campaigning for a women's issue. This anthology documents women's activism during this period by introducing heretofore unpublished public speeches that address a wide array of debated topics including child labor, international relations, nuclear disarmament, consumerism, feminism and anti-feminism, social welfare, family life, war, and the environment.

From a Pulitzer Prize-winning author, this collection of speeches is "the most valuable kind of book, the kind that benefits mind and heart" (Peggy Noonan).   This third edition of the bestselling collection of classic and modern oratory offers numerous examples of the greatest speeches ever delivered--from the ancient world to the modern. Speeches in Lend Me Your Ears span a broad stretch of history, from Gen. George Patton inspiring Allied troops on the eve of D-Day to Pericles's impassioned eulogy for fallen Greek soldiers during the Peloponnesian War; and from Jesus of Nazareth's greatest sermons to Ruth Bader Ginsburg's fiery speech in response to the Bush vs. Gore decision that changed the landscape of American politics in our time.

African American oratory, 1787-1900

This ambitious anthology marshalls mountains of anthropological and sociological data to elucidate the essence of the Black family both in the Americas and in the African motherland. The author interprets the differences between African-American and Euro-American family patterns not as deviations from some pristine, universal, ideal family structure, but rather as a function of the ongoing survival strategy of a vibrant tradition that has weathered centuries of social upheaval. Only the enduring African communal principles of "respect, restraint, responsibility, reciprocity, reverence, reason, and reconciliation" could have ensured the survival of the far-flung "African-American Community" as it was uprooted from one continent, transplanted in another, and woven inextricably into the fabric of the same trans-Atlantic empire that sought to drain it dry.

The speechs of more than 130 prominent Americans are gathered in this compilation, representing the leaders and others from four major ethnic groups: African Americans, Asian Americans, Hispanic Americans, and Native North Americans.

Drawing upon nearly two hundred years of recorded African American oratory, The Will of a People: A Critical Anthology of Great African American Speeches, edited by Richard W. Leeman and Bernard K. Duffy, brings together in one unique volume some of this tradition's most noteworthy speeches, each paired with an astute introduction designed to highlight its most significant elements.

This volume presents nearly 250 of Lincoln's most important speeches, state papers and letters in their entirety. Here are not only the masterpieces- the Gettysburg Address, the Inaugural Addresses, the 1858 Republican State Convention Speech and the Emancipation Proclamation - but hundreds of lesser-known ones, including excerpts from the Lincoln-Douglas debates, letters to Grant, McClellan, Stanton and his wife, and various meditations, verses and fragments.

Speeches on the road to the White House

Author, abolitionist, political speaker, and philosopher, Frederick Douglass was a pivotal figure in the decades of struggle leading up to the Civil War and the EmancipationProclamation.

Beginning more than sixty years ago, speech making supported the U.S. commitment to South Vietnam. Rhetoric helped send more than a half-million troops to defend the Vietnamese government the United States had yet sponsored; that policy led to dissent, and ultimately, Congress forcing the executive branch to terminate U.S. involvement. The fourteen key speeches collected in this volume, from Ho Chi Minh's Declaration of the Independence of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam in 1945 to John Kerry's Testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in 1971, express the entire range of positions on the war, which contributed to the political and societal developments that ordained its course and outcome. They span the most volatile years of that period, framed in the words that shaped an era.

Ripples of Hope brings together the most influential and important civil rights speeches from the entire range of American history-from the colonial period to the present. Gathered from the great speeches of the civil rights movement of African Americans, Asian Americans, gays, Hispanic Americans, and women, Ripples of Hope includes voices as diverse as Sister Souljah, Spark Matsui, and Harvey Milk, which, taken as a whole, constitute a unique chronicle of the modern civil rights movement.Featuring a foreword by President Bill Clinton and an afterword by Mary Frances Berry, this collection represents not just a historical first but also an indispensable resource for readers searching for an alternative history of American rhetoric. Edited and with an introduction by former Clinton speechwriter Josh Gottheimer, the stirring speeches that make up this volume provide an important perspective on our nation's development, and will inform the future debate on civil rights.

Say It Loud! adds new depth to the history of the modern struggle for racial equality and civil rights--focusing directly on the pivotal questions black America grappled with during the past four decades of resistance. With recordings unearthed from libraries and sound archives, and made widely available here for the first time.

Speeches and trial transcripts from the WSPU, a branch of the British women's suffragette movement.