Customer Reviews

Speeches That Changed the World

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The book is a nice collection of famous or near famous speeches. The major flaw of the book is Mr. Montefiore's personal grasp of history. His comments introducing the speeches are badly flawed in a number of places. He states that the Revolutionary War lasted 6 years. It lasted 8 years (1775 - 1783). He gives Napoleon a reason for escaping from Elba -- he was "Alarmed for the safety of his wife and son in France...." No where in any historical writing has this fact come out. Napoleon wanted to regain the power he once had. Under Hitler he states "April, by which time Hitler had survived various assassination plots by his own countrymen......". There was only one assassination plot that came to fruition. Under Churchill he states that Churchill was "Elected Prime Minister in 1940......". There was no election. It was an arrangement between the political powers in England at the time. Under Franklin D. Roosevelt there are two flaws. With respect to Roosevelt's inclinations in the early years of WW II -- "Initially determined to keep America out of the conflict, Roosevelt nevertheless....." In fact Roosevelt was in favor of getting the U.S. into the war. Politically he was prevented until the time of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Finally, Mr. Montefiore states that "....American spies indicated that Japanese naval forces were moving towards the oil-rich East Indies and Malaya. Reports that aircraft carriers were heading towards Hawaii were not taken seriously." In the first instance the reports of the Japanese task forces heading south were reported by a number of various sources, none of which were "American spies". Secondly American intelligence had lost sight of the Japanese carrier forces and reported them to be in the Inland Sea of Japan. There were NO reports of approaching carriers before the attack Dec. 7, 1941.

"Speeches That Changed the World" contains over 50 momentous and thought-provoking speeches that capture not only great truths of an era but also great lies. Some are speeches that we cherish and others, with hindsight, are now seen as despicable. And "it is the speeches of the monsters that teach us the most."

The book contains speeches by Moses, Jesus, St. Francis of Assisi, John Paul II, Mother Teresa, Lincoln, John Kennedy, George W. Bush, Winston Churchill, Neville Chamberlain, Emperor Hirohito, Golda Meir, Napolean, Hitler, Stalin, Malcolm X, and Elie Wiesel among many others.

These "speeches reveal character flaws and virtues of their orators and each is window into a great occasion in history." The book's editor hopes that if the reader remembers just Wiesel's thoughts on history and the private individual, this book will have truly succeeded. This highly regarded speech, "The Perils of Indifference," was given in 1999. In it, Wiesel highlights indifference, or as this word means "no difference." Indifference is the friend of the enemy. It is tempting, seductive, and reduces the other, our neighbor to an abstraction. Indifference is not only a sin, but it is also a punishment. Wiesel challenges us to not be indifferent, to search humankind's past and understand that indifference is an end...an end to human dignity, decency, and liberty.