The Penguin book of twentieth-century speeches

1 About this book

"Some men speak and change the world. Sometimes for better, often for worse. As Hitler rallied the Germans for war, andtwenty years later - John Kennedy sounded the bugle for the new frontier, their visions, gilded and articulated by the power of their oratory, stirred men's hearts and summoned nations to action." "'History will absolve me, ' declared Fidel Castro. 'Ask not what your country can do for you - ask what you can do for your country, ' said Kennedy. 'I have a dream, ' announced Martin Luther King. 'It is an ideal for which I am prepared to die, ' said Nelson Mandela. Few who were born during the Second World War and who came of age in the sixties will ever forget Kennedy's rousing exhortations or the cries for justice from King and Castro. Their words gave form to dreams and hope to men and women."

• Modern History
• History, modern
• Speeches, addresses
• Speeches