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Emmeline Pankhurst: Freedom or death

This speech was delivered in Hartford, Connecticut on November 13 1913Click here to read part 2 of the speechMrs Hepburn, ladies and gentlemen: Many people come to Hartford to address meetings as...

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Great speeches of the 20th century: Emmeline Pankhurst's Freedom or death

This speech was delivered in Hartford, Connecticut on November 13 1913I do not come here as an advocate, because whatever position the suffrage movement may occupy in the United States of America, in...

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Great speeches: Its brilliance was in its simplicity

Introduction to Martin Luther King's 'I have a dream' speech• Listen to Gary Younge discuss the speechLike all great oratory its brilliance was in its simplicity. Like all great speeches it understood...

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Martin Luther King: I have a dream

This speech was delivered on August 28 1963 at the Lincoln Memorial, WashingtonI am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history...

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Antony Beevor: A mesmerising oratory

A mesmerising oratoryCharles de Gaulle was only 15 when he first revealed his dream to lead the armies of France and save its honour. A strong sense of history was matched by a love of the French...

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Charles de Gaulle: The flame of French resistance

These speeches were broadcast by the BBC on June 18, 19 and 22 1940• Listen to the speechJune 18 1940 The leaders who, for many years past, have been at the head of the French armed forces have set up...

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Margaret Thatcher: The lady's not for turning

This speech was delivered to the Conservative party conference in Brighton on October 10 1980Mr Chairman, ladies and gentlemen, most of my Cabinet colleagues have started their speeches of reply by...

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Simon Jenkins: Strength in the face of adversity

The idea of an iron lady sure of the medicine the country needed and resolute in administering it became Thatcher's talismanMargaret Thatcher’s speech to the 1980 Conservative conference was that of a...

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Margaret Thatcher: The lady's not for turning

This speech was delivered to the Conservative party conference in Brighton on October 10 1980• Listen to the speechMr Chairman, ladies and gentlemen, most of my cabinet colleagues have started their...

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Introduction to Jawaharlal Nehru's 'A tryst with dignity' speech

Nehru's sentences were finely made and memorableThe demand for Indian independence had small beginnings in the early 20th century, but by the 1920s it loomed large in Indian life and British politics:...

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Jawaharlal Nehru: A Tryst with Destiny

This speech was delivered to the Constituent Assembly of India in New Delhi on August 14 1947• Listen to the speechLong years ago we made a tryst with destiny, and now the time comes when we shall...

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Kate Mosse: An impassioned call to action for young women

Woolf's speech was a brilliant interweaving of personal experience, imaginative musing and political clarityVirginia Woolf was a striking woman, the kind of person you would have noticed. I don't...

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Virginia Woolf: Shakespeare's sister - edited

Versions of this speech were delivered by Woolf at Girton and Newnham colleges, University of Cambridge, on October 20 & 26 1928This article has been removed as the copyright has expiredContinue...

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Aneurin Bevan: Weapons for squalid and trivial ends 2

This speech was delivered to the House of Commons on December 5 1956Now, of course, we come to the ultimate end. It is at the end of all these discussions that the war aim of the Government now becomes...

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Aneurin Bevan: Weapons for squalid and trivial ends 1

This speech was delivered to the House of Commons on December 5 1956. Click here for part 2"recognising the disastrous consequences of her Majesty's Government's policy in the Middle East, calls upon...

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Tam Dalyell: Bevan's great tour-de-force

It was not only loyal Bevanites who judged Nye's 49-minute tour de force as the greatest of speeches; it was also opponents and victimsAs a speaker at an evening meeting at Leeds University, I was...

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Aneurin Bevan: Weapons for squalid and trivial ends

This speech was delivered to the House of Commons on December 5 1956• Listen to Bevan's speechThe speech to which we have just listened is the last of a long succession that the right honourable...

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Beryl Bainbridge: The loss of the people's princess

Speeches made at funerals are generally rich in praise for the departed and full of platitudes. Those unacquainted with the deceased and the circumstances of death, who are present simply to give...

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Earl Spencer: The most hunted person of the modern age

This speech was delivered at Westminster Abbey on September 6 1997• Listen to the speechI stand before you today, the representative of a family in grief, in a country in mourning, before a world in...

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Ted Sorensen dies: 'Speeches are great when they reflect great decisions'

Ted Sorensen, one of President John F Kennedy's key advisers, discusses the art of writing speeches Continue reading...

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