This is my latest online time-waster; it’s got more historical value than most.
It’s… American Rhetoric’s Top 100 Speeches of the 20th Century .
I don’t know about the criteria that went into choosing these 100, but there’s some great oratory and it’s an interesting survey of American history, from the mouths of the people who were trying to shape it.
I found Reagan’s remarks following the explosion of the Challenger very moving. I read Ford’s pardon of Nixon and wanted to slug him, and I wanted to applaud after Joseph Welch asked Joe McCarthy, “You’ve done enough. Have you no sense of decency, sir, at long last? Have you left no sense of decency?” I knew the gist of the last one, but I’d never read the full exchange. I’d love to hear some other Dopers’ thoughts, favorites or memories about these moments in our history.
I can’t help but be moved by Welch’s remarks. And I can’t help but think of “Exhuming McCarthy” by R.E.M., which includes a snippet.
“Whats the criteria?” (with ‘back of the hand’ slapping)
Reagan’s 40th anniversary of D-Day speech should have been ranked higher:
…
And behind me is a memorial that symbolizes the Ranger daggers that were thrust into the top of these cliffs. And before me are the men who put them there. These are the boys of Pointe du Hoc. These are the men who took the cliffs. These are the champions who helped free a continent. And these are the heroes who helped end a war. Gentlemen, I look at you and I think of the words of Stephen Spender’s poem. You are men who in your “lives fought for life and left the vivid air signed with your honor.”
I believe that was written by Peggy Noonan, who also wrote the Challenger speech. She might be the most poetic of the various presidential speech writers.
Obviously a bunch of GW Bush haters at that website, Imagine not ONE speech!
