Customer Reviews

Sounding the Trumpet: The Making of John F. Kennedy's Inaugural Address

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Mr. Tofel provides an enjoyable and sympathetic account of how President-elect Kennedy managed the production of this rhetorical bombshell.

Like most presidential speeches, Kennedy's inaugural was a group effort, drawing upon the words and ideas of many gifted people. Tofel does an excellent job of pulling the speech apart, and showing the influence on particular passages of Kennedy's contributors and advisors, and of historical works such as Shakespeare and the Bible.

Lawyers and other communicators will be inspired by Kennedy's ability to fuse all these sources into one of the most invigorating of all Presidential inaugurals.

One more interesting book on JFK's inaugural address. Author Richard Tofel provides his version of the crafting of this famous speech. I say `his version' because Thurston Clarke in his opus Ask Not comes to a totally different conclusion as to who scripted the speech. Tofel believes it was a true collaborative affair between Kennedy and White House counselor Theodore Sorensen, while Clarke suggested that the speech was almost totally a Kennedy composition.

History and the facts side with Tofel. It is indisputable that Kennedy relied very much on Sorensen for his writing while the thinking was a joint affair. Sorensen wrote well for Kennedy because he knew his style, a knowledge developed which he worked with the young Senator during the 50's. Sorensen writes about this in his excellent book Counselor.

In this book, Tofel breaks the inaugural speech into When, Why and How.
The speech itself was a collaborative effort involving ideas and thoughts from many Kennedy associates. Sorensen originally sent a request for content to ten men, most of whom would eventually join the Kennedy administration. While writing about collaboration, Tofel refers to how Lincoln's inaugural relied on input from William Seward.

Plying my craft as a keynote speaker and business humorist, I am fully aware I cannot create great material on my own. I need sources, resources and research. Sounding the Trumpet is a great example of the importance of the collaborative process in developing memorable, compelling speech craft. A worthwhile read for the student of oratory.