UK Guardian: Great Speeches of the 20th Century

Thanks to a comment by The Friendly Ghost I’ve been made aware of the current series running in The Guardian Newspaper in the UK on Great Speeches of the 20th Century. The newspaper is doing more than merely reprinting the speech text:

Each day for two weeks you can collect a free booklet containing a historic address and the Guardian’s coverage of the speech from the time. The speeches are introduced by prominent figures ranging from FW de Klerk on Nelson Mandela’s statement to the Rivonia trial to Mikhail Gorbachev on Nikita Khrushchev’s denunciation of Stalin. Complete your collection with a CD featuring extracts from 10 great speeches free with the Guardian on Saturday May 5.

The series kicked off with Churchill’s We Shall Fight on the Beaches; moved on to JFK’s Ask Not what Your Country Can Do For You and covers the following list:

Nelson Mandela An ideal for which I am prepared to die April 20 1964
Harold Macmillan The wind of change February 3 1960
Franklin Delano Roosevelt The only thing we have to fear is fear itself March 4 1933
Nikita Khrushchev The cult of the individual February 25 1956
Emmeline Pankhurst Freedom or death November 3 1913
Martin Luther King I have a dream August 28 1963
Charles de Gaulle The flame of French resistance June 1940
Margaret Thatcher The lady’s not for turning October 10 1980
Jawaharlal Nehru A tryst with destiny August 14 1947
Virginia Woolf A room of one’s own 1928
Aneurin Bevan We have to act up to different standards December 5 1956
Earl Spencer The most hunted person of a modern age September 6 1997

I’m planning to bookmark the speeches and the debate around them for future reference, as well as asking my Dad to pick up a copy of Saturday’s Guardian and send over a copy of the CD.

UK Guardian: Great Speeches of the 20th Century

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