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thecandlelightlibrary 's review for:
Speeches that Made History
by BOUNTY (author)
This book had so much potential, but unfortunately fell flat for me. The introduction was fantastic and had me really looking forward to the rest of the book, but that excitement quickly waned as I continued reading.
Each selection included in Speeches followed the same format: title, author, a paragraph explaining what the speech was, and then (generally) a heavily abridged version of the speech. I appreciated the explanatory paragraph the publisher had included for each entry, but I wish the publisher had also included 1) the full speech, or at least an explanation of the parts they chose to omit, and 2) a paragraph or two explaining the context of the speech and why they felt it made one of the most influential speeches ever made. Were there any criteria used in the selection of these speeches, or are they just the result of personal preferences? For instance, how did Joe Jacobs’ exclamation of “We was robbed!” beat out any mention of Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech?
Several of the speeches I felt needed additional explanation, such as Adolf Hitler’s “Shaking off the Shackles of the Versailles Dictate” speech. Hitler was (at a minimum) the primary force behind the largest genocide ever recorded - how could the publisher justify including this particular speech without some sort of explanation of how or why they felt it was one of the most influential speeches ever?
While I did enjoy several of the speeches (Galileo, Buddha, Darwin, Edward Lorenz, and Voltaire to name a few), many of the selections left me questioning why they were included. For example, why include John Knox’s 1558 speech “The First Blast of the Trumpet Against the Monstrous Regiment of Women” (which was a venomous attack against the monarchs of England and Scotland, solely because they were both women), or “Declaring Southern Rhodesia’s Independence” (created exclusively by the white minority group and perpetuated white colonialism), or a single sentence of Oliver Cromwell’s during his slaughter of entire towns of Irish Catholics beginning in 1649? Why were these speeches chosen over, say, Abraham Lincoln's "The Gettysburg Address" or Charles de Gaulle’s “The Appeal of 18 June?
Each selection included in Speeches followed the same format: title, author, a paragraph explaining what the speech was, and then (generally) a heavily abridged version of the speech. I appreciated the explanatory paragraph the publisher had included for each entry, but I wish the publisher had also included 1) the full speech, or at least an explanation of the parts they chose to omit, and 2) a paragraph or two explaining the context of the speech and why they felt it made one of the most influential speeches ever made. Were there any criteria used in the selection of these speeches, or are they just the result of personal preferences? For instance, how did Joe Jacobs’ exclamation of “We was robbed!” beat out any mention of Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech?
Several of the speeches I felt needed additional explanation, such as Adolf Hitler’s “Shaking off the Shackles of the Versailles Dictate” speech. Hitler was (at a minimum) the primary force behind the largest genocide ever recorded - how could the publisher justify including this particular speech without some sort of explanation of how or why they felt it was one of the most influential speeches ever?
While I did enjoy several of the speeches (Galileo, Buddha, Darwin, Edward Lorenz, and Voltaire to name a few), many of the selections left me questioning why they were included. For example, why include John Knox’s 1558 speech “The First Blast of the Trumpet Against the Monstrous Regiment of Women” (which was a venomous attack against the monarchs of England and Scotland, solely because they were both women), or “Declaring Southern Rhodesia’s Independence” (created exclusively by the white minority group and perpetuated white colonialism), or a single sentence of Oliver Cromwell’s during his slaughter of entire towns of Irish Catholics beginning in 1649? Why were these speeches chosen over, say, Abraham Lincoln's "The Gettysburg Address" or Charles de Gaulle’s “The Appeal of 18 June?