Sometimes I forget when hearing the words spill from world leaders' mouths, that they are not necessarily their own. That the great(?) and good(?!) tend to have a raft of speech writers at their disposal to artfully craft whatever bit of political message they wish to promote into something that sounds impressive but does not offend too many interest groups. Indeed – that they manage to offend so many people anyway sometimes makes me wonder what the message would be better straight from the horse's mouth.
If you enjoy The West Wing, you'll probably like this book. Want to cast those roles in the west wings of the past 50 years? Chances are a lot of the (American) people who shaped or gave the important speeches and dealt with the crises of our times are in here somewhere. What is interesting here is not really what was said, but on how it was said. It's about delivery, and what contributes to effective public speaking.
Oratory is a classical art, practised by leaders and great men and women as far back as Ancient Greece. Its techniques and elements are taught in debating societies and public speaking classes. Contributors to this volume talk about the structure of their subjects' arguments – their use of anaphora, analogy, epanaphora, hyperbole, metaphor – along with other methods to deliver their message. Conversely, there is also mention of the effectiveness of choosing not to utilise complicated speech, of being “plain spoken” and down‐to‐earth.
The people covered in the book come from all sides of the political and religious spectrum. More prominent names from recent years include both Presidents Bush, Bill and Hillary Clinton, all the political Kennedys, John Kerry, Ralph Nader, Ross Perot, Colin Powell and Donald Rumsfeld. Past presidents are there, evangelist Christian and Islamic figures – Billy Graham Jr, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King Jr, Louis Abdul Farrakhan – famous names in the struggle for civil rights for ethnic minorities and lesbian, gay and bisexual people, and the women's movement.
I'd often wondered who or what the Harvey Milk Bar at Leeds University Union was named after. Now I know – a gay San Francisco supervisor who was assassinated by a former colleague on the board of supervisors. Testament to a bygone age of student political activism and awareness that halfway across the world a student union no doubt voted to remember him in the naming of a bar. Testament to today's students that it has since been renamed blandly “Mine”. (Though it could be worse – in my days at York we had the “Vaseline™ Student Centre”.)
Each chapter includes a brief biography of the subject, then a discussion of their oratorical style in major speeches they made. A bibliography of works and sources follows. The volume has a reasonable index, and the introduction discusses oratory and its role in modern society. The treatments of individual subjects are fascinating and enlightening. They pose many questions for further consideration. Both George W. Bush and Jimmy Carter are known for the “simplicity” of their speech, indeed ridiculed for it. Yet history has in the main been kind to Carter. Will Bush Jr be able to say the same?
All of the contributors seem well qualified in the field of debate and oratory. It is not always clear, however, why they are writing on the particular person they cover. The tone of the pieces suggests they are political allies, friends, admirers. Not necessarily a bad thing when trying to say what someone is good at I suppose – but a more critical approach would have added interest to the work. To know how a speaker persuades a hostile audience (touched upon by some, but not many, contributors) is perhaps more useful than hearing them preach to the converted.
At £71 this is not a cheap buy, but for the right collection this would make a valuable addition. The bibliographies could be particularly useful in guiding American studies reading.
