BOOK REVIEW: Voices of the Century

Speeches That Changed the World is a collection of some important speeches made by significant players of the twentieth-century world politics (though few speakers don't belong to the political domain). Compiled and edited by an Australian history teacher Alan J Whiticker and published by Jaico Publishing House in India in 2010, the book has 43 speeches covering a span of 104 years (1901-2004). The book talks about diverse issues from war to peace, from socialism to the Holocaust, from nuclear weapons to pacifism, and from women rights to AIDS-related discrimination. Considering the geography, time span and themes it covers, the book is a credible document of major ups and downs in the world politics in the twentieth century.  

The book begins with the declaration of the "Opening of the Australian Federal Parliament" (14) by The Duke of Cornwall and York (who later was crowned King George V) in 1901 in Melbourne and ends with Indian novelist and peace activist Arundhati Roy speaking in Sydney in 2004 about meaning of peace in modern corporate world – "Peace and the New Corporate Liberation Theology" (278). Some prominent personalities that lie in between are Vladimir Ilych Lenin, Adolf Hitler, Mohandas K Gandhi, Bertand Russel, John F Kennedy, Richard M Nixon, Margaret Thatcher and Nelson Mandela, to name a few. As the editor has said, the speeches represent "a fair share of the century's heroes and villains, martyrs and monsters" (Whiticker 12). The 43 speakers represent 15 countries while 20 of them belong to the United States of America alone. Whiticker justifies the American domination in his book as American political life has a historical tradition of public address as a part of it (12). Still being more American, the book has significant contributors from Europe, Asia, Africa and Australia. No any South American has place here.

The speeches are divided into nine thematic-chronological parts. First two chapters cover two decades (1901-19 and 1920-39) each while the rest seven range through a decade each. Besides this specific historical period, each part is given a thematic title. They are the Old World (1901-19), Between the Wars (1920-39), War, Peace and Freedom (1940-49), the Cold War (1950-59), Revolution (1960-69), Absolute Power (1970-79), the Big Chill (1980-89), the Dawn of Enlightenment (1990-99) and the New Millennium (2000 after). This division is easing and problematic simultaneously. On the one hand, it enables the reader to establish intra- and inter-chapter connections among speeches, hence reading becomes easier. But, at the same time, fitting a theme into a single decade that begins in the year 0 and ends in the year 9 is not that much easier. The editor could have done that for his comfort, but that may mislead a naïve reader.

Chronology is maintained strictly in placing the speeches in the book except one. The only exception is Nelson Mandela's 1990 speech "Release from Prison" (243) is placed after Mikhail Gorbachev's 1991 announcement of "Dissolving the Soviet Union" (238). Chronological order helps the reader get a holistic and comprehensive understanding of how the world politics moved through the twentieth century. The violation of that chronology in the Mandela-Gorbachev case too seems a mere technical error as the Mandela speech is mistakenly dated as of 1994 in the table of contents!  

By bordering the time span as the twentieth century, the editor has tried to provide as specific and detail information as possible. A single century can be a short period of time in history in general, but here the editor wishes his reader to zero in on the twentieth century. The final chapter "the New Millennium", which does not belong to the century, stands as an annexe to the work to suggest the reader more contemporary developments after the end of the century. It helps the reader imagine and speculate what would dominate the world politics in the next years to come.     

Also, the editor has provided a short introduction of the speaker and a brief description of the historical context in which the address happens. This feature elevates the book from a mere status of a speech collection to that of a more valuable resource for the study of contemporary political history. Usually speeches are sandwiched with such background information by the editor before and after the speech. The first (before the speech) part talks more of basic introduction of the speaker and sets the context and the concluding comment informs the reader more about consequences of the speech and events thereafter.  But, two speeches in particular – namely, "Address to the Irish Parliament" by Tony Blair in 1998 (255) and "Peace and the New Corporate Liberation Theology" by Arundhati Roy in 2004 (278) are without concluding notes. It is something unfitting which the reader easily notices.       

Some speeches connect to each other by themselves. In the first chapter Lenin speaks of the socialist order and dictatorship of the proletariat in 1919 (38), whereas in the second chapter Stalin praises Lenin and further explains that proletariat rule during his election campaign in 1937 (55). There are three brothers from a same family in the 1960s: John F Kennedy, Robert F Kennedy and Edward 'Teddy' Kennedy.  There are series of death speeches: Following Martin Luther King Junior's famous "I have a Dream" speech in 1963 (167), Robert Kennedy's announcement of the dream speaker's death during his electioneering in 1968 (174) is placed. It is further followed by Robert's brother Edward's eulogy on him two months after (178). Such inter-connections between and among the speeches provide a more detailed picture of those particular events and periods.

But few speeches isolate themselves from around. Margaret Sanger speaking of birth control system in 1925 in New York (42) and Ryan White lamenting his plight of having AIDS in 1988 in Washington DC (226) are more socio-cultural than political in nature and these remain isolated in this politics-dominated anthology. The editor could either include more non-political issues to maintain the balance or eliminate these speeches altogether to make his work purely political. Nonetheless, these two speeches also catch influential ideas and scenarios of their respective times.      

In a close technical scrutiny, the book has many minor but inexcusable grammatical and linguistic errors. There are instances of misspellings ("form" is spelt "from" in the introduction itself!), and British and American spellings are haphazardly used. Of course, the original speakers may have had different spellings, but the editor could edit them to maintain consistency. Many punctuation marks are missed. In many places, a hyphen is used where a dash was in need. And, in few places, there is a quotation mark that opens the sentence which remains unclosed throughout! Elimination of such slips could add more advantages to this book, which is already worth going through.   

As the editor has claimed, "this book is not meant to be a definitive list of the 'greatest' speeches" (Whiticker 9). Though these are not the greatest, they are some of the most important and influential ones still. These are the voices of the century and thereafter made during important milestone events of history. Thus, these speeches speak of voices of the century, voices that the contemporary world overhears powerfully even today.  

Work Cited

Whiticker, Alan J. Speeches That Changed the World. Mumbai: Jaico Publishing House, 2010.