This definitive collection gathers the most significant speeches of the modern era, from Theodore Roosevelt and Martin Luther King Jr. to Ronald Reagan and Michelle Obama Defined by waves of idealism and doubt, progress and destruction, the twentieth century and the first decades of the twenty-first have seen the best and worst of humanity in measures previously unimaginable. Underpinning the rise of radio, television, and the internet, the spoken word has proven ever more crucial in stirring the hearts and minds of millions around the world. In these pages, Emmeline Pankhurst agitates for the right to vote; Adolf Hitler rises to power; Fidel Castro sparks a