"Great American Speeches is a collection that reflects the important issues that confronted the United States at significant moments. The speeches have been organized chronologically, so that the history of the American republic unfolds decade by decade, year by year, through the personal responses of the individuals who shaped events and ideas. Included are speeches that are famed in themselves for the events they reflect or for the continually echoing eloquence of their words. They include: Patrick Henry's Liberty or Death speech, Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, William Jennings Bryan's Cross of Gold speech, Franklin Delano Roosevelt's Pearl Harbor message, John F. Kennedy's First Inaugural Address, and Martin Luther King's March on Washington 'I Have a dream' address. In addition, the speeches of such great Americans as George Washington, James Madison, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry Clay, Daniel Webster, Frederick Douglass, Lucy Stone, Mark Twain, Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, Ronald Reagan, and Jesse Jackson combine elements of personal importance, oratorical skill, topical consequence, and memorable presentation."--Publisher's description.