Product Description

From Socrates to Lincoln, this title includes 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 spoke on the most dramatic issues of their day. The readings are supplemented by music from Sibelius, Schumann and Nielsen.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #296567 in Books
• Published on: 1996-06-30
• Released on: 2005-01-31
• Number of discs: 2
• Format: Audiobook
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 2
• Binding: Audio CD

Customer Reviews

Want to know what else they said?
Read with exceptional clarity by a number of easy-on-the-ear voices, and accompanied by powerful classical music pieces, this two-cassette audio book brings to life the inspirational messages, and sometimes self-damning convictions, of some of the most well known characters from the history books.

This is not a book for the casual listener. It requires a certain amount of concentration and thought, and, for that reason, the short introduction to each new speech proved invaluable for me. Without a little background information, I feel I would have been left adrift on a sea of ye olde language and intellectualism, wondering what on earth the speakers said that merited all the fuss.

However, a brief knowledge of the times and particulary the belief-systems these famous people had to endure, made me realise just what risks Emmeline Pankhurst, Socrates, etc. took in making their views on passionate subjects public.

I got the book hoping to gain a better understanding of the intense emotions that must have driven these celebrated figures to stand against their cultures and religions, even to the point of death in some cases. What gave Martin Luther the strength to say, 'Here I stand; I can do no other'? I'm not sure I found the answer, or that it was a realistic expectation to think I could from one speech, but I did come away with a renewed awareness of the courage they all undoubtedly had.