This bestselling collection of American oratory is the most comprehensive anthology of its kind: a record of twentieth-century America captured in the words that inspired and infuriated, electrified and galvanized its people. Decade by decade, generation to generation, history unfolds in the famous and infamous expressions of Americans from all walks of life: poets and politicians, artists and astronauts, soldiers and sports legends, preachers and pacifists, humorists and hell-raisers. In Our Own Words bears witness to the forces that swept our nation -- two World Wars, Prohibition, the Depression, the Cold War, the Civil Rights era, Vietnam, the Reagan era, and beyond -- and features the voices of Theodore Roosevelt * Booker T. Washington * Mark Twain * Emma Goldman * Woodrow Wilson * Marcus Garvey * Oliver Wendell Holmes * George S. Patton * Pearl Buck * Orson Welles * Jackie Robinson * Joseph McCarthy * Rachel Carson * Vince Lombardi * Barry Goldwater * John F. Kennedy * J. Edgar Hoover * Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. * Malcolm X * Richard M. Nixon * Frank Zappa * Elie Wiesel * Charlton Heston * Ryan White * Duke Ellington * Billy Graham * Barbara Jordan * Bill Clinton * Cesar Chavez * Helen Keller ...and dozens of others who tell the story of their age from their podiums and soapboxes, courtrooms and convention halls. Stephen Ambrose Senator Torricelli's selection of great american speeches...makes me...glad that we live in America. Robert Shrum presidential speechwriter In Our Own Words is history at its best, because it is neither filtered nor synthesized but is presented in the words of the speakers themselves Library Journal Uniquely textured....There is no comparable one-volume collection of twentieth-century commentary that evokes such a diversity of viewpoints. New York Post A fine snapshot....All of the great moral and social debates can be found here. Charlie Rose Just amazing....It really is a history of our time. Andrew Carroll is the editor of three New York Times bestsellers, including Letters of a Nation and War Letters . Visit www.warletters.com. Introduction The center of my early life was my mother's school library. A lifelong teacher, she tended that collection of books as if it were another child. This might have led to a sibling rivalry. But, as the library grew, I soon realized that I was the principal beneficiary; all damaged or duplicate books became mine, and the walls of my room disappeared behind a covering of publishers' promotions. As technology progressed, publishers no longer simply sent books, but audio tapes and vinyl records as well. Among the first to arrive was a recording of famous speeches. By today's standards of CD-ROMs and compact discs, these 33 rpm records were of poor quality, the clarity of the speeches faintly obscured by a continuous murmur of pops and hisses. Nevertheless, these scratchy voices reached out from the past and eventually became as familiar to me as neighborhood friends. The lessons of history learned from these orators varied, and the quality of language and delivery was inconsistent. But this was of no consequence, because an essential lesson emerged overall: Words mattered. Words didn't merely chart or record the unfolding drama of history, they made history. The spoken word could incite, console, energize, and instruct. For years I have wanted to convey this power, this spirit of purpose and idealism, in a book of speeches. In Our Own Words is that book -- a collection of over 15o extraordinary orations, eulogies, commencement speeches, sermons, public tributes, testimonies, farewells, courtroom summations, and similar addresses given by Americans in the twentieth century. These are the words that have spurred this nation to war, freed the persecuted, tempered simmering mobs, entertained us with wit and humor, launched cultural and environmental movements, heralded breakthroughs in science and medicine, and reminded us of our ideals in periods of moral and political crisis. In selecting these speeches we have attempted to capture the triumphs, horrors, discoveries, and travails of the last hundred years. "Extraordinary" in no way implies endorsement of the speakers or their beliefs. The stage of history has showcased not only martyrs and social revolutionaries, but scoundrels, bigots, blowhards, and zealots. As appalling as their words may be -- such as Senator Joseph McCarthy's infamous declaration that he held in his hand a list of "card-carrying Communists" or George Wallace's boldly unapologetic defense of "Segregation now! Segregation forever!" -- they are re flections of their times. We may recoil at their invective, but we cannot ignore their influence. Assembled chronologically, the speeches are introduced with as little commentary as possible. Many have been edited -- sorne at the request of the contributors, others because the original speeches were, quite frankly, too prolix for a collection attemptin