Great Speeches in History

This book is not purchasable in your country. Please select another book.

Listen to a sample

What to expect

From Socrates to Charles I, Danton to Lincoln – here are some of history’s most significant figures with their most important speeches. Fighting for justice, for freedom of speech, and sometimes even for their own lives, these orators demonstrate the finest resources of language in the service of the most dramatic issues of their day.

Critics Review

  • I thoroughly recommend this all-too-short compilation of some of the most memorable speeches on record. There are all the obvious ones – Socrates after his sentence of death, Elizabeth I at Tilbury, the Gettysburg Address. Martin Luther, Danton, Emmeline Pankhurst, Burke and Fox are also here, but for me the highlight is Charles I from the scaffold. He famously wore two shirts so that if he trembled people wouldn’t think it was from fear. But listening to his long, rambling, repetitive, clearly nervous words you wonder how many of those onlookers were fooled.

    Rachel Redford, The Observer

Subscribe to our newsletter

Sign up to get tailored content recommendations, product updates and info on new releases. Your data is your own: we commit to protect your data and respect your privacy.