Kirkus
Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Influential orators use their talents for good and ill. To Rhodes, “a speech is the purest form of persuasion.” He’d know. The former Barack Obama speechwriter profitably surveys the context and impact of speeches by figures famed, infamous, and unduly forgotten. In an 1805 address delivered to proselytizing Christians, Seneca chief Red Jacket asked the pertinent question: “If there is but one religion, why do you white people differ so much about it?” His perspicacity aided “the expansion of American conscience,” Rhodes writes. Maria Stewart, a Black activist, spoke powerfully about racism and sexism in an 1833 speech Rhodes calls “an early recognition of intersectionality.” In remarks delivered in 1861, Alexander Stephens, vice president of the Confederacy, peddled a strain of white-identity politics that remains with us. Rhodes focuses on some household names but offers far more than potted history. In a chapter on Abraham Lincoln, he describes the president’s ability “to quiet an audience” by alluding to common ground as “a profound lesson” for generations of speechwriters. Ronald Reagan provides Rhodes with a case study in how nostalgia can be used to repackage harsh ideas. The author also takes us inside the Obama 2008 campaign, recalling how his boss rewrote a pivotal speech on race. The book consistently enlivens its source material, complementing the text of speeches with memorable anecdotes and difficult truths about what men, as different as Obama and Reagan, termed America’s “experiment in democracy.” Rhodes only struggles to find new angles of approach when scrutinizing exceedingly well-known speeches, such as Martin Luther King Jr.'s “I Have a Dream” address. Just a few of the speakers are women. This doesn’t reflect authorial bias; it’s an illustration of the patriarchal nature of our politics. An edifying assessment of notable speakers’ efforts to win hearts and minds. Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.