IntroductionSpeeches hold enormous power. They can start deadly wars or even bring them to a close. They can expose truths long hidden. They can impart advice so profound as to alter lives. They can celebrate the legacies of those departed. They can persuade a nation to change course. A perfectly pitched speech, delivered at the right time, can bring together people from the most disparate of backgrounds and, if only for the duration of the speech itself, unite them.
In this modern age, as hyper-connected as we are and with technology in our pockets that enables us to record and broadcast at the press of a button, speeches can find audiences reaching the millions when once they might have been heard only by a few. Footage of these speeches is being shared online at lightning pace, racing through vast, globe-spanning networks of like-minded people and achieving a potency and impact that not long ago would have been impossible.
This book is a celebration of all of this human emotion captured in oratory old and new. The speeches here are windows through which you are able to step into someone’s shoes and imagine standing in front of an audience, as these people once did with hearts in their mouths, adrenaline coursing through their veins, countless eyes upon them, unsure whether the words they were soon to speak would be received as they hoped, whether the risk would pay off, whether their message would result in lives changed, affirmed, or even ended.
In compiling this collection I have resisted the urge to merely cover the speeches we all know so well, so while you will indeed find oratory by the greats in these pages, you will also be introduced to some lesser-known speeches previously ignored through no fault of their own: George Bernard Shaw’s warm and rousing toast to Albert Einstein, a man “challenging the axioms of science”; the commencement address affectionately given to graduates at Long Island University by Kermit the Frog; Tilda Swinton’s homage to friend and “fellow freak” David Bowie, intimately delivered despite his absence, three years before his death; Nick Cave’s marvelous lecture on his relationship with the love song; and many more.
Other speeches here are engrossing because they were never delivered and to this day remain unspoken, as with the chilling draft scripted for Queen Elizabeth II in 1983 by officials imagining the onset of World War III, and the powerful words that Native American Wamsutta Frank B. James was stopped from delivering at a U.S. state dinner in 1970. Some speeches became notable before their reader had even taken to the podium, as evidenced by the thick script in the jacket pocket of Theodore Roosevelt that slowed the course of a would-be assassin’s bullet to such an extent that he was able to address the crowd, as planned, wearing a blood-stained shirt.
Where possible, to further immerse you and bring you closer to the historical moment, I have tracked down and included images of the speeches themselves – that is, the very document from which these people read as they made their voices heard. Some are typewritten, some composed by hand. Accompanying other addresses are photographs of the speeches being delivered; elsewhere, some gorgeous illustrations. In instances where recordings are available, they have been transcribed as accurately as possible. For those speeches where no such audio exists, I have referred to historical transcripts.
No doubt there are speeches you believe should have made it into this book – indeed, there are many I am yet to discover or have recommended and I’d love you to share your favorites with me on Twitter @SpeechesOfNote.
All told, you have in your hands a book quite unlike any other: a lusciously produced roller-coaster ride through seventy-five speeches of note, all of which are deserving of a wider audience.
Shaun Usher
Speeches of Note
Copyright © 2018 by Shaun Usher. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
