Customer Reviews:
 a badly received present October 27, 2007
Adele (Bucks)
3 out of 12 found this review helpful
I bought this for a friend then felt awful when I heard that he hadn't enjoyed it. I read it myself and realise why - because it's rubbish. There are much better books than this around. don't buy it
 It doesn't do what it says on the tin! November 30, 2006
Barry Cunningham (Ireland)
47 out of 49 found this review helpful
There are some great speeches in this book, some wonderful pieces of oratory captured on the page, but i take considerable issue with the title and in some cases with the authors historical context pieces.
Prefacing a speech by Valclav Havel he mentions that "this is a little known speech"; how then did it change the world?
The author's Irish historical contextual pieces leave a lot to be desired (yes I'm Irish and yes I want a balanced view of our history, not Mr Montefiore's view). His choice of a speech by Eamonn De Valera is perplexing. It is little known within Ireland and even less known outside. A good speech and well crafted but I doubt it changed Ireland let alone the world.
Nonetheless there are speeches here that bear reading and re-reading. Martin Luther King, Hitler - to read such vitriol is essential, the Gettysburg address, Churchill's defining WW2 speeches - which are some of the few that could be said to live up to the title.
Buy it for the speeches, ignore the author's contextual introductions and let some powereful words speak for themselves, but don't expect them to change the world
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