292 speeches from ancient Greece to 1970, some of the included are: Napoleon's farewell; Patrick Henry's "Give me liberty, or give me death" speech; Washington's farewell; John C. Calhoun's last speech in the Senate; William Bryan's "Cross of Gold" speech; Churchill's "Blood, sweat, and tears", "Finest hour", and "Iron curtain" speeches; MacArthur's "Old soldiers never die" speech; Kennedy's inaugural address; Eisenhower's farewell address.

Part I Great Speeches of Earlier Times -- I. Greece and Rome --Pericles/ Funeral Oration -- Socrates/ On His Condemnation to Death -- Isocrates/ On the Union of Greece to Resist Persia -- Demosthenes/ On the Crown -- The Second Oration Against Philip -- Cato, the Elder/ In Support of the Oppian Law -- Hannibal/ To His Soldiers -- Cicero/ First Oration Against Catiline -- The Fourth Philippic -- Catiline/ To the Conspirators -- To His Troops -- Julius Ceasar/ On the Treatment of the Conspirators -- Cato, the Younger/ The Catilinarian Conspirators -- Mark Antony/ Oration on the Dead Body of Julius Caesar. II. The European Continent -- St. Bernard/ A Second Crusade -- St. Francis/ Sermon to the Birds -- Martin Luther/ Before the Diet of Worms -- John Calvin/ On Suffering Persecution -- Frederick the Great/ Before Invading Silesia, 1740 -- Before the Battle of Leuthen, 1757 -- Desmoulins/ Advocating the Execution of Louis XVI -- Mirabeau/ Agaist the Charge of Treason -- Danton/ "To Dare again, Ever to Dare!" -- "Let France Be Free!" -- Marat/ Defense Against the Charges -- Robespierre/ The Festival of the Supreme Being -- Napoleon Bonaparte/ At the Beginning of the Italian Campaign -- On Entering Milan -- On Beginning the Russian Campaign -- Farewell to the Old Guard -- Carnot/ Against Imperialism -- Victor Hugo/ Voltaire -- Guiseppe Mazzini/ To the Young Men of Italy -- Guiseppe Garibaldi/ To His Soldiers -- Cavour/ Rome and Italy -- Louis Kossuth/ America's Welcome -- Leon Gambetta/ To the Delegates from Alsace -- Emile Zola/ Appeal for Dreyfus -- Leo XIII/ Christian Democracy -- Otto von Bismarck/ War and Armaments in Europe -- Bethmann-Hollweg/ Germany and the War -- Kaiser Wilhelm II/ Address to the German People -- Jean Jaurès/ Last Speech -- René Viviani/ The Spirit of France -- Cardinal Mercier/ Coronation Day Sermon -- Georges Clemenceau/ One Aim: Victory -- Alexander Kerensky/ To Workingmen and Soldiers -- Leon Trotzky/ To the Red Army -- Nikolai Lenin/ The Dictatorship of the Proletariat -- Marshal Ferdinand Foch/ Napoleon -- Aristide Briand/ Naval Disarmament. III. Great Britain and Ireland -- Oliver Cromwell/ On the Dissolution of Parliament -- Sir Robert Walpole/ On a Moriton for His Removal -- John Wesley/ God's Love to Fallen Man -- William Pitt, Earl of Chatham/ On the right of Taxing America -- Edmund Burke/ Conciliation with America -- Indictment of Warren Hastings -- Richard Brinsley Sheridan/ At the Trial of Warren Hastings -- William Pitt/ On His Refusal to Negotiate with Bonaparte -- Charles James Fox/ On Refusal to Negotiate with Bonaparte -- George Canning/ The Fall of Napoleon -- Thomas Babington Macaulay/ On the Reform Bill -- Richard Cobden/ The Effects of Protection on Agriculture -- John Bright/ The "Trent" Affair -- Benjamin Disraeli/ Peace with Honor -- William Ewart Glastone/ On Domestic and Foreign Affairs -- Cardinal Manning/ Anti-Semitism -- Joseph Chamberlain/ The British Empire -- Emmeline Pankhurst/ Militant Suffragists -- Sir Edward Grey/ England's Position -- David Lloyd George/ An Appeal to the Nation -- Arthur James Balfour/ The Fourth of July -- James Ramsay MacDonald/ Peace -- Lady Astor/ Women in Politics -- George Bernard Shaw/ On His Seventieth Birthday -- Daniel O'Connell/ Justice for Ireland -- Robert Emmet/ Protest Against Sentence as Traitor -- Charles Stewart Parnell/ The Home Rule Bill -- Arthur Griffith/ The Irish Free State. IV. The United States -- Jonathan Edwards/ Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God -- John Hancock/ The Boston Massacre -- Patrick Henry/ "Give Me Liberty, or Give Me Death!"-- Samuel Adams/ American Independence -- Benjamin Franklin/ On the Faults of the Constitution -- James Madison/ The States and the Federal Government -- John Marshall/ Justice and the Federal Constitution -- Alexander Hamilton/ The Federal Constitution -- George Washington/ Inaugural Address -- Farewell Address -- Thomas Jefferson/ First Inaugural Address -- Gouverneur Morris/ Alexander Hamilton -- American Indians/ Red Jacket -- Tecumseh -- Edward Everett/ Adams and Jefferson -- Daniel Webster/ Reply to Hayne -- Andrew Jackson/ Second Inaugural Address -- Wendell Phillips/ The Murder of Lovejoy -- Rufus Choate/ The Preservation of the Union -- John Caldwell Calhoun/ Slavery -- Henry Clay/ On the Compromise of 1850 -- Charles Sumner/ The Crime Against Kansas -- William Henry Seward/ The Irrepressible Conflict -- John Brown/ On being Sentenced to Death -- William Lloyd Garrison/ On the Death of John Brown -- Stephen Arnold Douglas/ Reply to Lincoln -- Jefferson Davis/ On Withdrawal from the Union -- Abraham Lincoln/ On His Nomination to the Senate -- Farewell Address at Springfield -- Address at Gettysburg -- Second Inaugural Address -- Henry Ward Beecher/ The System of Slavery -- Susan B. Anthony/ On Woman's Right to Suffrage -- Robert Green Ingersoll/ Blaine-The Plumed Knight -- Oration at His Brother's Grave -- James Gillespie Blaine/ On the Death of Garfield -- Grover Cleveland/ First Inaugural Address -- Chauncey Mitchell Depew/ The Columbian Oration -- Booker T. Washington/ The American Standard -- William Jennings Bryan/ The Cross of Gold -- Albert J. Beveridge/ The Republic That Never Retreats -- Henry Cabot Lodge/ The Retention of the Philippines -- William McKinley/ Address at Buffalo -- Robert Marion La Follette/ Manhood or Money -- Theodore Roosevelt/ The Strenuous Life -- Jane Addams/ Washington's Birthday -- Stephen S. Wise/ Lincoln, Man and American -- Woodrow Wilson/ Peace Without Victory -- Declaration of War -- The Fourteen Points -- The League of Nations -- William Edgar Borah/ The League of Nations -- Eugene Victor Debs/ On Receiving Sentence -- Elihu Root/ A Plea for the League of Nations -- Oliver Wendell Holmes (Justice)/ "Live-I Am Coming!". V. Canada -- Sir John A. MacDonald/ On Canadian Federation -- Sir Wilfrid Laurier/ Canada, England, and the United States -- Sir Robert Laird Borden/ The Voice of the Empire. VI. South America, South Africa, India, and China -- Simon Bolivar/ Address at Angostura -- Jan C. Smuts/ Peace and Empire -- Rabindranath Tagore/ Nationalism in India -- Mohandas K. Gandhi/ Non-Cooperation -- Sun Yat-Sen/ National Morale and World Tranquillity. Part II Great Speeches of Recent Times -- VII. Domestic Affairs in the United States -- William Green/ Modern Trade Unionism -- Alfred E. Smith/ Religious Prejudice and Politics -- Fiorello H. LaGuardia/ American Labor -- Clarence S. Darrow/ A Plea for Mercy -- John L. Lewis/ The Rights of Labor -- William Allen White/ Speaking for the Consumer -- Thomas E. Dewey/ Rendezvous with Despair -- Herbert Hoover/ The Bill of Rights -- Charles Evans Hughes/ Our Government. VIII. World Affairs and the Second World War -- Anthony Eden/ A Firm Policy -- Neville Chamberlain/ The Munich Agreement -- Winston Churchill/ "Blood, Sweat and Tears" -- Dunkirk -- "Their Finest Hour" -- The War on Russia -- Address before the United States Congress -- Clement R. Attlee/ The Atlantic Charter -- W.L. MacKenzie King/ Canada and the War -- Edouard Daladier/ Nazis' Aim Is Slavery -- Paul Reynaud/ France Will Live Again! -- Henri Philippe Pétain/ "I Need Your Confidence!" -- Eamon de Valera/ Ireland Among the Nations -- Maxim Litvinov/ The League of Nations -- Haile Selassie/ The Position of Ethiopia -- Frederico Laredo Bru/ United Hemisphere Defense -- Adolf Hitler/ Germany's Claims -- No More Territorial Demands -- German Conquests -- Benito Mussolini/ A Call to Arms -- Anniversary of Italy's Entry in the War -- Vyacheslav M. Molotov/ The Nazi War on Russia -- Joseph Stalin/ "Defend Every Inch of Soviet Soil!" -- Fumimaro Konoye/ The Triple Alliance -- Chiang Kai-shek/ War Between Justice and Force -- Pius XII/ Appeal for Peace. IX. The United States and The Second World War -- Franklin Delano Roosevelt/ First Inaugural Address -- Hemisphere Defense For Democracy -- "The Arsenal of Democracy" -- Freedom of the Seas -- For a Declaration of War Against Japan -- America's Answer to Japan's Challenge -- First War Address Before Congress -- Wendell L. Willkie/ "Loyal Opposition" -- American Liberty -- Cordell Hull/ The Pillars of Enduring Peace -- James Bryant Conant/ What Are We Arming To Defend? -- Charles A. Lindbergh/ An Independent Policy -- Henry L. Stimson/ A Grave Situation -- Harold L. Ickes/ What Constitutes an American -- Frank Knox/ We Must Fight for Our Liberties -- Fulton J. Sheen/ The Cross and the Double Cross -- Dorothy Thompson/ Hitler's Plans for Canada and the United States -- Henry A. Wallace/ America's Second Chance -- Norman Thomas/ America and the War. Part III Great Speeches Of The Modern Period -- X. United States Government -- Bernard Mannes Baruch/ Control of Atomic Weapons -- Harry S. Truman/ Inaugural Address -- Powers of the President -- Douglas MacArthur/ Old Soldiers Never Die -- Adlai Ewing Stevenson/ Acceptance of Nomination -- United States Far Eastern Policy -- Dwight David Eisenhower/ Inaugural Address -- Peaceful Use of Atomic Energy -- The Spirit of Geneva -- Earl Warren/ A Home for American Jurisprudence. XI. International Affairs and the United Nations -- Winston Churchill/ An Iron Curtain Has Descended -- Jawaharlal Nehru/ Asia Finds Herself Again -- A Glory Has Departed -- Oswaldo Aranha/ A New Order Through the United Nations -- Pierre Mendès-France/ The Search for International Cooperation -- Dag Hammarskjold/ Values of Nationalism and Internationalism -- Nickolai Aleksandrovich Bulganin/ The Lessening of International Tension -- Frank Lloyd Wright/ On Architecture -- Albert Einstein/ Peace in the Atomic Age -- William Faulkner/ Acceptance of the Nobel Prize -- Dylan Thomas/ A Visit to America -- Eleanor Roosevelt/ The United Nations as a Bridge -- J. Robert Oppenheimer/ Prospect in the Arts and Sciences -- Walter Philip Reuther/ A Historical Agreement -- Adlai Ewing Stevenson/ To the Graduating Class at Smith College. Part IV Informal Speeches -- XII. Informal Speeches -- Ralph Waldo Emerson/ The Memory of Burns -- Charles Dickens/ English Friendship for America -- Julia Ward Howe/ A Tribute to Oliver Wendell Holmes -- James Russell Lowell/ After-Dinner Oratory -- Oliver Wendell Holmes/ Dorothy Q. -- Henry Morton Stanley/ Through the Dark Continent -- Henry Ward Beecher/ Merchants and Mininsters -- Chauncey Mitchell Depew/ Woman -- Joseph Hodges Choate/ The Bench and the Bar -- George Graham Vest/ A Tribute to the Dog -- Horace Porter/ Woman! -- Thomas Henry Huxley/ Science and Art -- Carl Schurz/ The Old World and the New -- William Schwenck Gilbert/ "Pinafore" -- Sir Arthur Sullivan/ Music -- Edward Everett Hale/ Boston -- Ulysses Simpson Grant/ The New Englanders -- Samuel L. Clemens ("Mark Twain")/ New England Weather -- The Babies -- Woman, God Bless Her! -- Charles William Eliot/ Harvard and Yale -- Henry Watterson/ The Puritan and the Cavalier -- John Hay/ Omar Khayyam -- Sir Henry Irving/ The Drama -- Robert Edwin Peary/ Farthest North -- Andrew Carnegie/ General Goethals and the Panama Canal -- Lord Cecil/ Englishmen and Americans -- Sir James Matthew Barrie/ Literature and the Press -- Irvin S. Cobb/ The Lost Tribes of the Irish in the South -- Will Rogers/ Wealth and Education -- William Lyon Phelps/ Owning Books -- Edward VIII/ Farewell Address -- Owen D. Young/ Culture -- John D. Rockefeller, Jr./ Our Family Creed. Part V Important Speeches Of The Sixties -- XIII. United States -- John Fitzgerald Kennedy/ Inaugural Address -- The Strategy of Peace -- Poetry and Power -- Martin Luther King, Jr./ I Have a Dream -- Dwight David Eisenhower/ Farewell Address -- Robert S. McNamara/ War and Poverty -- Lyndon Baines Johnson/ On Vietnam and on the Decision Not to Seek Reelection -- John W. Gardner/ Uncritical Lovers, Unloving Critics -- George Wald/ A Generation in Search of a Future -- Richard Milhous Nixon/ Inaugural Address -- To the Astronauts on the Moon -- John Vliet Lindsay/ Second Inaugural Address as Mayor. XIV. World Affairs -- Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev/ The Personality Cult and Its Cosequences -- Lord Snow/ Recent Thoughts on the Two Cultures -- Charles de Gaulle/ Independence for Algeria -- Pope John XXIII/ The Opening of the Ecumenical Council -- Pope Paul VI/ No More War. Supplement: Survey of Speeches By Black Americans--Compiled by Philip S. Foner -- Henry Highland Garnet/ An Address to the Slaves of the United States of America -- Frederick Douglass/ The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro -- Oration in Memory of Abraham Lincoln -- Booker T. Washington/ Atlanta Exposition Address -- (See also page 331) -- W.E.B. Du Bois/ Behold the Land -- Martin Luther King, Jr./ (See page 751) -- Malcolm X/ The Black Revolution.