Right Words: Great Republican Speeches that Shaped History by Wynton C. Hall

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Synopsis

Award-winning presidential scholar and speechwriter Wynton Hall brings together the Republican Party’s greatest oratorical gems, from Lincoln's Gettysburg Address and Teddy Roosevelt's the Man with the Muckrake to Ronald Reagan's "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall" and George W. Bush's "our mission and our moment" speech after 9/11. Hall examines the historical context of each of these great addresses and reveals the persuasive secrets that make each speech truly outstanding.

Publishers Weekly

Hall, a visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution, believes that "Leftist Academe" has effected an "erasure of Republican remembrance," something he seeks to correct with this collection of 17 speeches by members of the Grand Old Party. Some of these texts are seminal pieces of American political oratory-Richard Nixon's "Checkers" speech; Reagan's 1987 remarks at the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin. In his prefatory notes to each speech, Hall teases out themes, such as commitments to "individualism, military strength, and self-reliance," that have long marked Republican thinking. Unfortunately, Hall's hysterical introduction to the book-which is more about the "radicalized professoriate" and the "liberal Democrats [who] dominate our nation's campuses" than about Republicans-will alienate readers who don't share his partisan viewpoint. Indeed, this anthology doesn't adequately testify to ideological diversity within the Republican Party; yes, Lincoln's two most famous speeches (the Gettysburg Address and the Second Inaugural) lead the book, and Hall includes two by Teddy Roosevelt, but after that, it's on to William F. Buckley and Dwight Eisenhower. This would have been a much different book had Hall included samples of, say, Radical Republican speechifying during Reconstruction. (Mar.) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Biography

Wynton C. Hall is a visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. An award-winning presidential scholar, speechwriter, and author, Hall holds an M.A. from Texas A&M University in speech communication with an emphasis in presidential rhetoric and public affairs. In 2003, he was appointed to the eight-person National Task Force on the Presidency and Public Opinion, which is composed of some of the top presidential scholars in the United States. Hall is the coauthor of The Greatest Communicator: What Ronald Reagan Taught Me about Politics, Leadership, and Life (Wiley). His work has been published in The New York Times, USA Today, The Washington Times, Presidential Studies Quarterly, National Review Online, and elsewhere.