A celebration of the great speeches of world history and cultural
life. A VINTAGE ORIGINAL
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.
