Writing a review of this book takes some courage, for this is a book coauthored by hundreds of remarkable characters throughout the human history.
I first borrowed this book from one of NYU's libraries because I needed to write political speeches for a science fiction. It soon became clear that this is not a book that can be skimmed through in a few days. Not a beach read or a diversion you bring to an airplane. It desires a slot on my bookshelf and is well worth the $35 I spent on Amazon. There are more than 200 speeches presented in 14 categories, ranging from Napoleon's exhortation to his soldiers to Clinton's memorial of Martin Luther King. My favorite is the category of War and Revolution, as "The better work men do is always done under stress and at great personal cost" (William Carlos Williams), although I do learn a lot in any of the other categories, about economy, democracy, religion, etc.
But this is more than a collection. Preceding every speech, the author, William Safire, gives a brief background of the speech and the speaker. For historical events, you may argue that anyone could easily "google" something out, but the intros written by Safire are not mere facts; they are the distillate of abundant knowledge combined with personal insights. I've tried reading some of the speeches without first resorting to Safire's intros. Always ended up clueless. Some of the events awoke my old memories. When I learned those events in high school, they were numbers and names and exam questions. Now reading the actual speech, I become face to face with the speaker, fearing his fear and smiling at his smile. There is no force stronger than the mind of a remarkable human being. And that's how people achieve eternity --- “Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing about.” (Benjamin Franklin)
Writing a review of this book takes some courage, for this is a book coauthored by hundreds of remarkable characters throughout the human history.
I first borrowed this book from one of NYU's libraries because I needed to write political speeches for a science fiction. It soon became clear that this is not a book that can be skimmed through in a few days. Not a beach read or a diversion you bring to an airplane. It desires a slot on my bookshelf and is well worth the $35 I spent on Amazon. There are more than 200 speeches presented in 14 categories, ranging from Napoleon's exhortation to his soldiers to Clinton's memorial of Martin Luther King. My favorite is the category of War and Revolution, as "The better work men do is always done under stress and at great personal cost" (William Carlos Williams), although I do learn a lot in any of the other categories, about economy, democracy, religion, etc.
But this is more than a collection. Preceding every speech, the author, William Safire, gives a brief background of the speech and the speaker. For historical events, you may argue that anyone could easily "google" something out, but the intros written by Safire are not mere facts; they are the distillate of abundant knowledge combined with personal insights. I've tried reading some of the speeches without first resorting to Safire's intros. Always ended up clueless. Some of the events awoke my old memories. When I learned those events in high school, they were numbers and names and exam questions. Now reading the actual speech, I become face to face with the speaker, fearing his fear and smiling at his smile. There is no force stronger than the mind of a remarkable human being. And that's how people achieve eternity --- “Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing about.” (Benjamin Franklin)
写这本书的评论需要一些勇气，因为这是一本书的共同作者数百个杰出的人物贯穿人类历史。 我首先从NYU的一个图书馆借了这本书，因为我需要为一本科幻小说写政治演说。 很快就清楚了，这本书不是几天后就能读完的。 不是海滩读书也不是你带到飞机上的消遣。 它希望在我的书架上有一个插槽，而且非常值得我花在亚马逊上的$35。 从拿破仑对他的士兵的劝诫到克林顿的马丁·路德·金纪念，共发表了200多篇演讲，分为14大类。 我最喜欢的是战争和革命这一类，因为“人们做的更好的工作总是在压力下、付出巨大的个人代价”（威廉卡洛斯·威廉姆斯），尽管我确实在其他任何一类中学到了很多东西，比如经济、民主、宗教等等，但这不仅仅是一种收藏。 在每次演讲之前，作者威廉·萨菲尔都简要介绍了演讲的背景和演讲者。 对于历史事件，你可能会认为任何人都可以轻易地“谷歌”出一些东西，但萨菲尔的自述并不仅仅是事实，而是丰富知识和个人见解的结晶。 我试着阅读了一些演讲，但没有先引用萨菲尔的自述。 结果总是毫无头绪。 一些事情唤醒了我的旧记忆。 当我在高中学到这些事情的时候，它们是数字、名字和试题。 现在读着实际的演讲，我变成了面对面的演讲者，害怕他的恐惧和微笑他的微笑。 没有一种力量比一个非凡的人的头脑更强大。 这就是人们实现永恒的方式——“要么写一些值得阅读的东西，要么做一些值得写的事情。” 本杰明
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