Short description
A compilation of history-making oratory from some of the Republican Party's most important leaders includes works ranging from Lincoln's Gettysburg Address to famed speeches by Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush, along with a look at the historical context and influence of each piece.
Long description
Winning Republican communication secrets are revealed. From Abraham Lincoln to John McCain, Republican leaders have used words to shape our world. Sadly, many of the most soaring moments of Republican rhetoric have fallen between the cracks of history. Now Wynton Hall considers the GOP's greatest oratorical gems, from Lincoln's Gettysburg Address and Teddy Roosevelt's "the man with the muckrake" to Ronald Reagan's "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall" and George W. Bush's "our mission and our moment" speech after 9/11. Drawing on a massive reservoir of research, Hall looks at the historical context and reveals the persuasive secrets embedded in these great speeches. Wynton C. Hall is a Visiting Fellow of the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, and is an award-winning presidential scholar and speechwriter. He is the coauthor, with Dick Wirthlin, of "The Greatest Communicator" (0-471-73648-1) and, with Caspar Weinberger, of "Home of the Brave" (0-7653-1303-0).
Review
Hall, a visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution, believes that Leftist Academe has effected an erasure of Republican remembrance, something he seeks to correct with this collection of 17 speeches by members of the Grand Old Party. Some of these texts are seminal pieces of American political oratory-- Richard Nixon's Checkers speech; Reagan's 1987 remarks at the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin. In his prefatory notes to each speech, Hall teases out themes, such as commitments to individualism, military strength, and self-reliance, that have long marked Republican thinking. Unfortunately, Hall's hysterical introduction to the book-- which is more about the radicalized professoriate and the liberal Democrats [who] dominate our nation's campuses than about Republicans-- will alienate readers who don't share his partisan viewpoint. Indeed, this anthology doesn't adequately testify to ideological diversity within the Republican Party; yes, Lincoln's two most famous speeches (the Gettysburg Address and the Second Inaugural) lead the book, and Hall includes two by Teddy Roosevelt, but after that, it's on to William F. Buckley and Dwight Eisenhower. This would have been a much different book had Hall included samples of, say, Radical Republican speechifying during Reconstruction. (Mar.) ( Publishers Weekly, November 27, 2006)
Table of contents
- Acknowledgments.INTRODUCTION.The Elephant Poachers: Leftist Academe and the Erasure of Republican Remembrance.1 Abraham Lincoln: The First and Greatest.The Gettysburg AddressNOVEMBER 19, 1863, BATTLEFIELD, GETTYSBURG, PENNSYLVANIA.Second InauguralMARCH 4, 1865, U.S. CAPITOL,WASHINGTON, D.C.2 Theodore Roosevelt: The Rough--Riding Rhetorician.The Strenuous LifeAPRIL 10, 1899,THE HAMILTON CLUB, CHICAGO, ILLINOIS.The Man with the Muck--RakeAPRIL 15, 1906,WASHINGTON, D.C.3 William F. Buckley Jr.: American Conservatism Finds Its Spokesman in the Speech That Wasn't.Yale Alumni Day SpeechFEBRUARY 1950 (UNDELIVERED), YALE UNIVERSITY, NEW HAVEN, CONNECTICUT.4 Dwight D. Eisenhower: Strategic Speechifying.Atoms for PeaceDECEMBER 8, 1953, UNITED NATIONS GENERAL ASSEMBLY, NEW YORK, NEW YORK"Little Rock"SEPTEMBER 24, 1957, OVAL OFFICE,THE WHITE HOUSE WASHINGTON, D.C.5 Everett Dirksen: The Speech That Made the Civil Rights Act of 1964 Possible."The Time Has Come"JUNE 10, 1964, U.S. SENATE,WASHINGTON, D.C.6 Barry Goldwater: "You Know He's Right"."Extremism in the Defense of Liberty Is No Vice"JULY 16, 1964, REPUBLICAN NATIONAL CONVENTION, THE COW PALACE, SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA.7 Richard M. Nixon: The Beginning of the End."Checkers"SEPTEMBER 23, 1952, U.S. CAPITOL,WASHINGTON, D.C.8 Gerald R. Ford: "Our Long National Nightmare Is Over".Oath of the U.S. PresidencyAUGUST 9, 1974, EAST ROOM OF THE WHITE HOUSE, WASHINGTON, D.C.9 Ronald Reagan: A Shining Speaker on a Hill."The Evil Empire"MARCH 8, 1983, ANNUAL CONVENTION OF THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF EVANGELICALS, ORLANDO, FLORIDA.ChallengerJANUARY 28, 1986, OVAL OFFICE,THE WHITE HOUSE, WASHINGTON, D.C."Mr. Gorbachev,Tear Down This Wall"JUNE 12, 1987, BRANDENBURG GATE, BERLIN, GERMANY.10 Newt Gingrich: The Revolutionary Speaker."The Contract with America"JANUARY 4, 1995, INAUGURAL SPEECH AS SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE, U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES,WASHINGTON, D.C.11 George W. Bush: His Mission and His Moment."Justice Will Be Done"SEPTEMBER 20, 2001, JOINT SESSION OF CONGRESS, U.S. CAPITOL,WASHINGTON, D.C.12 John McCain: The Maverick and His Message."A Disingenuous Filmmaker"AUGUST 30, 2004, REPUBLICAN NATIONAL CONVENTION, MADISON SQUARE GARDEN, NEW YORK, NEW YORK.Notes.Index.