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The Greatest Speeches of All Time  By  cover art

The Greatest Speeches of All Time

By: Joan of Arc, Winston Churchill, Susan B. Anthony, Amelia Earhart, John F. Kennedy, George Washington
Narrated by: David Birney, Loretta Swit
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Publisher's summary

The full list of authors includes: Susan B. Anthony, Joan of Arc, Winston Churchill, Jefferson Davis, Amelia Earhart, David Ben Gurion, Patrick Henry, Thomas Jefferson, John F. Kennedy, Nikolai Lenin, Martin Luther, Richard Nixon, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Robespierre, and George Washington.

More than 40 speeches - considered among the greatest of all time - comprise this marvelous collection. All the works you'll hear are unabridged, and the most contemporary are live recordings. Other historical speeches are read by professional actors David Birney, Juliet Mills, Loretta Swit, and Stephanie Beacham. Included are speeches by Susan B. Anthony, Joan of Arc, Winston Churchill, Jefferson Davis, Amelia Earhart, David Ben Gurion, Patrick Henry, Thomas Jefferson, John F. Kennedy, Nikolai Lenin, Martin Luther, Richard Nixon, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Robespierre, George Washington, and others.

(P) and ©1998 NewStar Media Inc.

What listeners say about The Greatest Speeches of All Time

Average customer ratings
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  • 4 Stars
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  • 4 out of 5 stars
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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Surprisingly Good

Many of these speeches will be familiar to the listener. However, some of the most interesting ones for me were the speeches I had never even heard about, such as the one given by the first female in the British Parliment.

Also, the Washington speeches are very timely (or perhaps they are so timeless that they will always seem timely).

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122 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars

Not the greatest, maybe the most historical

Should have been titled "The most historical speeches". Many of them had great historical significance, but were not very moving as speeches.

Also many are narrated. Some of the narrators use good delivery - however others read like they are narrating a non fiction book. Much of a speech is the delivery, and the delivery is COMPLETELY lost on many if not most of the narrated ones.

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78 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars

The Greatest American Speeches of all time.

I was very disappointed with this title. Most of the speeches were from American oraters, and while I can appreciate that some of them would constitute inclusion, it was very one sided. Noticable missing was Chief Seattles speech, considered the greatest speech on the environment ever.

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66 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars

Just Plain Bad

The actors reading the speeches are just plain bad. Speeches should not be read as if they were books on tape--but as speeches! Here the actors essentially speak in a monotone. The selection of live speeches leaves much to be desired. No matter what you think of Bill Clinton, does he deserve ANY time in the Greatest Speeches of All Time? NO! Does he deserve 30 minutes? HA! Does Gloria Steinham deserve even so much as one second? Give me a break! This title is so bad that it is putrid. Don't even think of getting it.

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59 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars

Who picked these speeches?

The selection and editing of these speeches were sometimes disappointing. Some clearly great historical speeches are included -- but I was too frequently baffled by the inclusion of marginal speeches from "left-of-center" political figures. Why do we hear an extended, tiresome speech by Carter on energy policy, yet only a snippet from Reagan's compelling speech on the Cold War several years later? Why so much Clinton, Roosevelt, Lenin, and Robespierre? Also, there is a decidedly American bent to this that may disappoint listeners from other parts of the world.

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39 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars

Great, but one thing needed...

This is a real bargain if you are interested in public speaking. What is necessary for this particular title more than others is a list of speeches indexed by playing time, so that you can go directly to a particular speech...

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16 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars

Jimmy Carter & Clinton's speeches must be a joke!

Likes:
Most people are not aware of the great leaders of history! If more people listened to the inspiring speeches from great leaders such as Churchill, Kennedy and Martin Luther and M.L.King, and read some history; they would not stand for the double speaking, spineless, self serving, and quisling like, empty suit politicians in the house and senate that keep getting re-elected!

Dislikes:
To include Jimmy Carter hopeless speech and a 10 self indulgent fluff speech by Bill Clinton, is utterly laughable, in the light of the giants, while not including the actual speech by Ronald Reagan's "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall." Instead, the CD has a two-minute segment from an American TV address in which he tells of seeing the Berlin Wall.

The one thing it shows is the political leanings of the people that put this audio book collection together....

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14 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars

Choices and Reality

Assembling such a collection is always difficult because there are so many choices available. I can understand the emphasis on history/politics because that's where most of the material is available.

BTW, Chief Seattle's speech was ghost-written in 1971, nearly a century after he died.

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12 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars

A Sampling of More Often Mediocre Speeches

The editor occasionally gets lucky with a great speach, but for the most part this collection is very poorly chosen. It does not come even remotely close to living up to the title. Many great speaches which do not agree with the editor's bias are severely abbridged while other selections of very dubious quality are allowed to drone on at length.

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11 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars

Poor choices, awfully read

If these are the best speeches of all time then public speaking should be banned. Moreover, the readers here are so mellowdramatic and so overact the parts that is nearly comedic. Listen to the sample before buying and you will see.

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9 people found this helpful