Words that Moved a Nation
King and Kennedy
The Power of Persuasion in Public Life 

A study of Persuasive Rhetoric: "Words That Moved a Nation" traces the ancient rhetorical techniques behind the speeches of Martin Luther King Jr. and John F. Kennedy and shows how the same tools built persuasion, for good and ill, from ancient Greece to the speechwriters of today.

 

 

It examines the rhetorical tools behind some of history's most consequential speeches and argues that those same tools are still shaping public life today.

 

It traces the classical framework of ethos, pathos, and logos, the credibility, emotion, and logic that ancient rhetoricians identified as the building blocks of persuasive speech, along with devices such as anaphora, the repetition technique familiar from King's own "I have a dream" refrain. It follows those tools from the orators of ancient Greece and Rome through Winston Churchill and Aneurin Bevan to the contested rhetoric of the present day.

 

The book builds toward a working formula for today's speechwriters, for anyone who has to persuade an audience for a living: leaders, teachers, campaigners, clergy, and journalists among them, not only historians. 

 

King and Kennedy remain the book's central case studies, contrasting King's use of the cadences of the Black Baptist church and his organising of marches and civil disobedience from outside the machinery of government with Kennedy's use of the balanced syntax of classical political speech and his work through alliances and legislation from inside it. The comparison grew out of doctoral research, which analyses how rhetoric converted moral vision into public consent and measurable change, citing outcomes from civil-rights legislation to the Limited Test Ban Treaty of 1963.‘

 

'Famous speeches were not famous because of the famous people who delivered them, but because of the ancient craft of rhetoric they studied and practised: a craft that is available to anyone with credibility, integrity, and a desire to make the world a better place. The need has never felt more urgent.’

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Historical, accessible and thought-provoking, Words That Moved a Nation is a powerful study of rhetoric, leadership and the enduring force of words that still echo today.

 

Reviewer Hugh Riches, a political journalist and broadcaster, called the book

"a rich, intelligent and highly readable work of history."

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Words that Moved a Nation is widely available from the publisher's website through amazon and all  good online and high street booksellers.