The Right Words: Great Republican Speeches That Shaped History Hardcover - 2007 - 1st Edition

From the jacket flap

From its earliest days, the Republican Party has been distinguished by its leaders' abilities to explain their ideas, inspire their followers, and shape their nation through clear, bold, and uplifting oratory. Many Republican speeches stand as rhetorical landmarks in American history. Others, however, have been overlooked and even downplayed, some argue, by a liberal elite intent on dismissing conservative voices. No more.

In The Right Words, the award-winning presidential scholar and speechwriter Wynton Hall celebrates 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.

More than a simple reprinting of great speeches from the past, this meticulously documented compendium draws on a massive reservoir of research as it examines the historical context of each of these great addresses and reveals the persuasive secrets that make each speech truly outstanding.

Beginning with America's--and perhaps history's--greatest speaker, Hall presents Abraham Lincoln's profoundly moving Gettysburg Address as well as the speech Lincoln considered his greatest: the second inaugural. Other major addresses presented include: Ronald Reagan's thrilling "tear down this wall" speech and stirring "Challenger" addressTeddy Roosevelt's muscular presentation on the Strenuous LifeWilliam F. Buckley's challenging, though never delivered, 1950 address to the Yale alumniBarry Goldwater's speech accepting the 1964 Republican presidential nominationDwight D. Eisenhower's brilliant Atoms for Peace speech as well as his address to the nation before sending troops to Little Rock, Arkansas, in 1957Everett Dirksen's passionate words in support of the Civil Rights Act of 1964

Complete with memorable contributions from John McCain, Newt Gingrich, President George W. Bush, and others, The Right Words is a veritable gold mine of Republican and conservative political theory, strategy, and action delivered by the party's most outstanding leaders. Hall's careful analysis of the technical elements that make each of these masterful presentations so effective will be particularly useful to anyone interested in public speaking, communications, or advocating for a political cause.

Media reviews

Citations

• Publishers Weekly, 11/27/2006, Page 42
• Reference and Research Bk News, 05/01/2007, Page 60