Speeches that Changed the World

Book 76 - Simon Sebag Montefiore - Speeches that changed the World

A fascinating snapshot into human history from Christ’s Sermon on the Mount, through to Hitler’s speech demanding the Sudetenland from Czechoslovakia and on to speeches from Stalin and Churchill, several speeches from different US Presidents including, Washington, Wilson, Nixon and Obama.

Pope John Paul II and Pope Francis get a look in with their honesty and realism of the difficulties the Catholic Church has faced and continues to face.

With speeches from both Emmeline Pankhurst and Malala Yousafzai, sandwiched by one from Hillary Clinton espousing the rights of women to be recognised, to be educated and indeed to lead, as struck so precisely by Margaret Thatcher; it show more is clear where positivity and indeed standing shoulder to shoulder is still so important today.

From JFK to Martin Luther King and Malcolm X we see how the racial tensions of today has been something the US and indeed the world has battled and continues to battle.

It is hard to pigeon hole a book like this.. if you knew nothing about Hitler or Stalin and were simply reading their words as written you could see how millions were swayed...but then...I suppose that was the intention.

The final word I feel goes to someone I knew very little about, Ellie Wiesel delivered on 12th April 1999, “In the place that I come from, society was composed of three simple categories: the killers, the victims and the bystanders..we felt abandoned, forgotten.”

Ellie Wiesel was a Romanian-born American writer, professor, political activist, Nobel Laureate and Holocaust survivor. His work were based on his experiences as a Jewish prisoner in the Auschwitz and Buchenwald concentration camps.

We must never be bystanders when calling out injustice and we must never forget the injustices and horror of the Holocaust. show less

Compendio di storia ovviamente parziale, decisamente spostato verso leader politici statunitensi, non mi ha entusiasmato come credevo. Forse non sono i discorsi ad essere evocativi e toccanti (a parte alcuni, come quello di Wiesel, o di Sadat), e non sono loro ad aver cambiato il mondo: e' l'uso ed il riuso che ne abbiamo fatto ad averli trasformati in icone del cambiamento.
Peccato solo che - nella migliore tradizione utilitaristica americana - di molti discorsi sono riportati solo i passi migliori, e non tutta la loro l'esposizione.

Текстът на някои речи на известни хора, които авторът е подбрал като "променили света", заедно с кратко описание на личностите и събитията, които са довели до тяхното произнасяне.

Подборката е средна работа, някои от речите наистина са много силни и с безспорна важност, други - не чак толкова.

Трябва да се признае, че авторът се опитва да ни представи хора и речи, които са променили света както за добро, така и show more за лошо. В книгата присъстват както Нелсън Мандела и Чърчил, така и Сталин и Хитлер. show less

I think some of the critics believe the choices were some what pro-Western. I don't agree. The tome doesn't lay claim to include every world-changing speech, only some of them and it does a very reasonable job of that ambition.

The pen is mightier than the sword...the speeched captured in this book attest to the power of the spoken and written word. It comes with a CD

От производителя

Книга объединяет более 50 публичных выступлений самых разных исторических деятелей и политиков - от библейского пророка Моисея до президента Джорджа Буша. Британский писатель и историк Саймон Сибэг Монтефиоре уже известен российскому читателю бестселлерами "Потемкин" и "Сталин: двор красного монарха". В книге "Речи, которые изменили мир" Монтефиоре выделяет ключевые моменты истории show more человечества и раскрывает их значение через воззвания лидеров - людей, определявших словом и делом вектор последующего развития. Каждая речь сопровождается очерком, высвечивающим исторический фон, на котором она была произнесена, и биографической справкой об ораторе. Эффектные черно-белые иллюстрации по степени воздействия близки к документальному кино. Большинство речей публикуются на русском языке впервые.

Книга будет полезна не только тем, кто интересуется всемирной историей и риторикой, но и руководителям, перед которыми стоит задача вдохновлять и вести за собой. show less

A decent collection of speeches, nicely assembled and published.