Speeches That Shaped The Modern World

'Speeches That Shaped The Modern World' is a collection of the most potent and memorable speeches that have occurred since the year 1900 - speeches that have helped to shape the world we now live in. Memorable images add to make it a fascinating journey through time.

This collection takes recurring themes such as politics and diplomacy, war and peace, freedom and justice, civil rights and human rights. What they all have in common is the rhetoric - the power of persuasion.

Starting with the Duke of York's speech that opened Australia's parliament in 1901, the speeches represent a fair share of heroes and villains, martyrs and monsters. Josef Stalin and Mahatma Gandhi speak side by side with Nelson Mandela, Joseph McCarthy, the Kennedy brothers, Fidel Castro and Paul Keating.

Across 16 nations, the most powerful and influential men and women of the last 100 years speak on everything from women's suffrage to human rights. Some speeches have been voted the most important speech of the last century - such as Winston Churchill's 'Our Finest Hour', John F Kennedy's 'Cuban Missile Crisis', and Dr Martin Luther King Junior's 'I Have a Dream'.

Several speeches have become icons of modern history such as Lou Gehrig's 'Farewell to Baseball', Neil Armstrong's 'One Small Step' and Douglas McArthur's 'Old Soldiers Never Die'. Some, such as Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev's denouncement of Stalin and German Cardinal Clement von Galen's criticism of Hitler, are relatively unknown.

With the passage of time they have all become even more powerful and poignant.