The top 100 speeches of the 20th century
As research for my bestselling book on Public Speaking, I listened to dozens of famous speeches. I found a list of the top 100 speeches of all time and worked my way through it, making the following observations:
- We have technology bias. Since we don’t have recordings of, for example, Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, Jesus’ sermon on the mount, or Cicero at the Roman Senate, this top 100 list is really the top 100 audio recordings of speeches of all time. There are hundreds of years of great speeches that will never make this list, even if we extend it beyond the 20th century, simply because we’ve never heard them spoken.
- There is a difference between a great written speech and a great performance. No living person heard Lincoln actually give the Gettysburg address. It’s debatable how good a speaker he was. Many of the speeches in this list are noteworthy for their content, but not necessarily for how they are presented (e.g. Faulkner’s Nobel Prize acceptance speech).
- None of these speeches used Powerpoint, or had media of any kind. It’s a reminder that it’s your ideas and how clear you can be in expressing them with your voice that matters more than anything. Some of these speeches were clearly read from a script, but many were developed through practice and using a system like the one I recommend.
- We have cultural biases that affect who is listed. I have yet to find a proper international list of the speeches of all time. Most of the lists I’ve found are made in the U.S. and/or Google has a strong U.S. bias since that’s where I’m searching from. I also only understand English, so even if there were an international list, it would have to be translated. And of course, history biases which speeches and ideas will be honored: Hitler and Mussolini were both notable public speakers, but I doubt we’ll see them on any lists like these, even if they belong up there.
- Malcolm X is one of the best speakers on the list. I certainly don’t agree with all of his points, especially his more militant early work, but he succeeds at being natural, provocative, funny, intelligent and passionate in ways few on this list do (Try White Man’s Law as an early example and Any means necessary for later). MLK is far more theatrical in the way he presents, and I like it less (although he is exceptional). Many of the speeches in this top 100 list are by politicians, and are unsurprisingly stiff and rehearsed sounding. Even JFK comes off this way in some of his most famous speeches.
[Updated/edited: 1-13-16]
Wow, thanks for this.
And of course comedians never make lists like these, although folks like George Carlin definitely deserve mention. Check out Modern man.
Cultural/technology bias notwithstanding, it is surely unconscionable that Winston Churchill does not appear anywhere on this list.
Gordon: I agree. I think the fact that it’s a list created by the american rhetoric society gives them some license to focus on just the U.S., but it’s more worrysome that no one has compiled a world-wide list. Or even just speeches in English.
If it’s out there I haven’t found it yet.
The beauty of this time of age is that if something bothers you, you can provide an alternative.
Why not instead of just complaining of how some one spent his time in creating this great list you use your personal time in creating the perfect list you believe should be here instead and post it on your site?
That list seems to be entirely American indeed. I’d expect an English language list would at least include Churchill…
BTW, do you think (y)our opinion on the quality of the speeches is also influenced by time? For example, Many films of the 1960s or 1970s are slow and sleep inducing today – except for a few really good ones. I guess many speeches may meet the same fate.
Some international speeches (Churchill, Einstein, De Klerk) may be found here:
http://www.thehistorychannel.co.uk/site/great_speeches/
Jeroen: Absolutely. Style, speed and tone are all reflections of pop-culture of the day, and many of FDR’s speeches sound very old, and impossible to deliver the same way today. He spoke in a time before television. I think a clear demarcation in speaking style can be found in pre-TV and post-TV.
I don’t think the internet has yet had much of an effect on speech in this way. But we’ll see.
This is part of why written speeches live on in a way the performed versions do not – the style effects are easier to compensate for in written speech. You can skim or make easier style allowances.
Carlin’s “saving the planet” was inspired by Jurrasic Park, especially (I think) that long death bed monologue of the mathematician. This I know because Carlin checked with Michael Crichton, and then Crichton put Carlin’s skit on his home page.
Scott — there is a slightly less US-centric set of great speeches compiled by the Guardian newspaper in the UK:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/theguardian/series/greatspeeches
Thanks for sharing. Waiting for your next great book. All the best for your work
A Call to Accuracy: It is NOT a list of the top 100 speeches of all time. It IS a list of the Top 100 *American* *Political* Speeches of the *20th century.*
These data are the subject of explicit identification at: http://www.americanrhetoric.com/newtop100speeches.htm
M.E.
A lot of these speeches were delivered to a large crowd. The speakers knew they suffered from acoustic issues and paced themselves accordingly. (Lou Gehrig’s “Luckiest Man” speech, with the interminable echo at Yankee Stadium, is the poster child for these.) Reagan was one of the first who recognized that modern technology allowed you to be intimate with the audience — and even his key public-place speeches were really aimed at the audience watching on TV.
It’s interesting that black preachers often found a rhythm that worked well — Malcolm X, Dr. King. Perhaps an audience of a few hundred is the right size to build on interaction with the audience without dealing with a need to project an image to a stadium — or the Mall in DC.
I’ve talked with a number of folks perhaps ten years older than I who were present for Dr. King’s “I Have a Dream.” Comments from someone on the lawn suggested Dr. King was both flat and hard to hear. Comments from people on or near the podium also noted Dr. King was having timing troubles, and indeed the first two-thirds of the speech are preamble to the few minutes we remember. You can hear him pausing for response a few times and not getting much beyond some mild encouragement from others on the podium.
There were hundreds of thousands of people on the Mall that day, but I think the reason the speech works so well for us — and not so good for those who were there — was that it is pitched just as if he had a congregation in front of him crowded into a church or meeting hall. There’s no over-enunciation; his rhythm assumes there’s no echo to contend with; and he’s not shouting other than the preacher-loud climax.
BTW, I think the posts about both Churchill and Carlin make very good points. It’s obvious the list is US-centric; it is what it is. However, the omission of others who “give speeches” is jarring. Carlin most certainly gave speeches; his setpieces were lengthy, had a consistent theme, had a core or spine to which he’d keep returning, had a point to make, and so on. I’d also add the great storytellers; Pete Seeger and Bruce Springsteen, for example, may spend ten minutes on a topic between songs that is just as focused as a political speech. (The Record Live 1975-1985 captures a number of Springsteen’s “speeches”/stories.)
Michael: thanks for the correction. I added “of all time” when clearly your site says 20th century. I’ll fix this.
Scott: We’re good. Certainly, an attempt to expand the scope of a ‘great speeches… list’ could be worthwhile, perhaps even heroic, and most probably intractably unsatisfying.
best – Michael
On my 2008 fall vacation at a Chapters bookstore I was pleased to find a boxed set of a book of “Speeches That Changed the World” (transcripts and biographys) and a CD. This from London by Quercus publishing (2007) with an introduction by Simon Sebag Montefiore. The CD really made my road trip. It was all English but not just U.S. citizens, and not just politics. The CD went back as far as Chamberlain’s “peace in our time” speech.
I was amused to find -so much has it been quoted- that I had heard (read) every word of JFK’s inaugural before, just not all in one place!
The (abridged?) speeches, Scott will be pleased to know, do indeed include Hitler, Stalin and Hirohito but, alas, not Mussolini. Of course Malcolm is included.
What do you think about Barack Obama – who is said to be a great speaker – will he once be in the top 100?
I think who makes this list has a great deal to do with their other accomplishments. Do we really think these people gave the greatest “speeches” or all time? Not exactly. They gave the greatest speeches among a tiny number of very influential people whose speeches matter and are heard by hundreds of thousands of people.
That said, I think Obama is a very good public speaker. He’s not one of my favorites but he is certainly very good.
Best speeches are those that satisfy everybody irrespective of whether or not such individuals are able to construct their own. For example, the speech of Martin Luther the King, “I have a Dream”. But the problem is that speeches touch individuals differently, why because an individual that has not been exposed to conditions or situations for which the speech is meant may not really feel deeply touched by such speech unless otherwise, take for example ” I have a dream” was meant for demand for equality, justice and freedom for all implying that it touches deeply an individual who experienced or under oppression of injustice practices as opposed to a person who never experienced injustice acts or oppression unless such a person is naturally born with a humanity heart or that that can feel justice imbalance.
I can agree that most or all top 100 speeches come from America simply because the numerous speeches there created need for comparison of these different meaningful and important speeches to find out the best of all. Otherwise the world has so many such speeches but can not be properly recognized because they come from different unrelated nations or states.
If collection is done for all the great speeches around the world, then there will be need to compare only speeches that relate to a particular situation. There people will be able to tell which among such speeches on related situations could be the best, but all in all, what I know is the bitterest the situation for which a speech is written, the more powerful the speech.
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