Shows
History’s Great SpeechesDemosthenes, On The Crown, 330, Part 1I begin, men of Athens, by praying to every god and goddess, that the same good will, which I have ever cherished toward the commonwealth and all of you, may be requited to me on the present trial. I pray likewise—and this specially concerns yourselves, your religion, and your honor—that the gods may put it in your minds, not to take counsel of my opponent touching the manner in which I am to be heard—that would indeed be cruel!—but of the laws and of your oath: wherein (besides the other obligations) it is prescribed that you shal...2024-03-2028 min
History’s Great SpeechesDemosthenes, Third Philippic (the need for immediate action), 341Many speeches, men of Athens, are made in almost every assembly about the hostilities of Philip, hostilities which ever since the treaty of peace he has been committing as well against you as against the rest of the Greeks; and all (I am sure) are ready to avow, though they forbear to do so, that our counsels and our measures should be directed to his humiliation and chastisement: nevertheless, so low have our affairs been brought by inattention and negligence, I fear it is a harsh truth to say, that if all the orators had sought to suggest, and...2024-03-1833 min
History’s Great SpeechesDemosthenes, Second Philippic (on suspicious ambassadors), 344In all the speeches, men of Athens, about Philip's measures and infringements of the peace, I observe that statements made on our behalf are thought just and generous, and all who accuse Philip are heard with approbation; yet nothing (I may say) that is proper, or for the sake of which the speeches are worth hearing, is done. To this point are the affairs of Athens brought, that the more fully and clearly one convicts Philip of violating the peace with you, and plotting against the whole of Greece, the more difficult it becomes to advise you how to...2024-03-1515 min
History’s Great SpeechesDemosthenes, On The Peace, 346 I see, men of Athens, that our present situation is one of great perplexity and confusion, for not only have many of our interests been sacrificed, so that it is of no use to make eloquent speeches about them; but even as regards what still remains to us, there is no general agreement in any single point as to what is expedient: some hold one view, and some another.
Perplexing, moreover, and difficult as deliberation naturally is, men of Athens, you have made it far more difficult. For while all the rest of mankind are in the ha...2024-03-1314 minHistory’s Great SpeechesDemosthenes, Third Olynthiac (against rumor and hubris)Not the same ideas, men of Athens, are presented to me, when I look at our condition and when at the speeches which are delivered. The speeches, I find, are about punishing Philip; but our condition is come to this, that we must mind we are not first damaged ourselves. Therefore, it seems to me, these orators commit the simple error of not laying before you the true subject of debate. That once we might safely have held our own and punished Philip too, I know well enough; both have been possible in my own time, not very long...2024-03-1117 min
History’s Great SpeechesDemosthenes, Second Olynthiac (on the need for haste in sending military aid).On many occasions, men of Athens, one may see the kindness of the gods to this country manifested, but most signally, I think, on the present. That here are men prepared for a war with Philip, possessed of a neighboring territory and some power, and (what is most important) so fixed in their hostility, as to regard any accommodation with him as insecure, and even ruinous to their country; this really appears like an extraordinary act of divine beneficence. It must then be our care, Athenians, that we are not more unkind to ourselves than circumstances have been; as...2024-03-0814 min
History’s Great SpeechesDemosthenes, First Olynthiac (the need for war against Philip)I believe, men of Athens, you would give much to know, what is the true policy to be adopted in the present matter of inquiry. This being the case, you should be willing to hear with attention these who offer you their counsel. Besides that you will have the benefit of all preconsidered advice, I esteem it part of your good fortune, that many fit suggestions will occur to some speakers at the moment, so that from them all you may easily choose what is profitable.
The present juncture, Athenians, all but proclaims aloud, that you must...2024-03-0613 min
History’s Great SpeechesDemosthenes, The Freedom Of The Rhodians (democracy vs oligarchy), 351 It is, I think, your duty, men of Athens, when you are deliberating upon affairs of such importance, to grant freedom of speech to every one of your advisers. And for my part, I have never yet felt any difficulty in pointing out to you the best course; for I believe that, broadly speaking, you all know from the first what this is. My difficulty is to persuade you to act upon your knowledge. For when a measure is approved and passed by you, it is as far from execution as it was before you resolved upon it.
2024-03-0420 min
History’s Great SpeechesDemosthenes, First Philippic (preparing Athens for war), 351Had the question for debate been any thing new, Athenians, I should have waited till most of the usual speakers had been heard; if any of their counsels had been to my liking, I had remained silent, else proceeded to impart my own. But as the subjects of discussion is one upon which they have spoken oft before, I imagine, though I rise the first, I am entitled to indulgence. For if these men had advised properly in time past, there would be no necessity for deliberating now.
First I say, you must not despond, Athenians, under...2024-03-0124 min
History’s Great SpeechesDemosthenes, The Megalopolitans (caught between Sparta and Arcadia), 353I think, men of Athens, that those who have spoken on the Arcadian side and those who have spoken on the Spartan, are alike making a mistake. For their mutual accusations and their attacks upon one another would suggest that they are not, like yourselves, Athenians, receiving the two embassies, but actually delegates of the two states. Such attacks it was for the two deputations to make. The duty of those who claim to advise you here was to discuss the situation impartially, and to inquire, in an uncontentious spirit, what course is best in your interests.
A...2024-02-2817 min
History’s Great SpeechesDemosthenes, On The Naval Boards (preparing for the coming war), 354 Those who praise your forefathers, men of Athens, desire, no doubt, to gratify you by their speeches; and yet I do not think that they are acting in the interests of those whom they praise. For the subject on which they attempt to speak is one to which no words can do justice; and so, although they thus win for themselves the reputation of capable speakers, the impression which they convey to their hearers of the merit of our forefathers is not adequate to our conception of it. For my part I believe that their highest praise is constituted b...2024-02-2624 min
History’s Great SpeechesSeason 11: DemosthenesDemosthenes is generally acknowledged as the greatest orator in history. Born to a sword maker and orphaned at 7, he overcame a stammer and the theft of his inheritance by his legal guardians to become as foundational to oratory as his contemporaries Plato and Aristotle are to philosophy.
Much like a major contemporary political figure, he overcame a stammer on his journey to greatness, with “inarticulate and stammering pronunciation.” He was known as “a water drinker”; a stern and serious presence at all times.
His great battle was against the waning of Athenian democracy, which slowly disinteg...2024-02-2306 min
History’s Great SpeechesClosing2024-02-1300 min
History’s Great SpeechesMarcus Tullius Cicero, Second Against Mark Anthony Part 2The tribune of the people was borne along in a chariot, lictors crowned with laurels preceded him, among whom, on an open litter, was carried an actress; whom honorable men, citizens of the different municipalities, coming out from their towns under compulsion to meet him, saluted not by the name by which she was well known on the stage, but by that of Volumnia. A car followed full of pimps; then a lot of debauched companions; and then his mother, utterly neglected, followed the mistress of her profligate son, as if she had been her daughter-in-law. Oh, the disastrous...2024-02-1222 min
History’s Great SpeechesMarcus Tullius Cicero, Second Against Mark AnthonyTo what destiny of mine, O conscript fathers, shall I say that it is owing, that none for the last twenty years has been an enemy to the republic without at the same time declaring war against me? Nor is there any necessity for naming any particular person; you yourselves recollect instances in proof of my statement. They have all hitherto suffered severer punishments than I could have wished for them; but I marvel that you, O Antonius, do not fear the end of those men whose conduct you are imitating. And in others I was less surprised at...2024-02-0925 min
History’s Great SpeechesMarcus Tullius Cicero, First against Mark AnthonyBefore, O conscript fathers, I say those things concerning the republic which I think myself bound to say at the present time, I will explain to you briefly the cause of my departure from, and of my return to the city. When I hoped that the republic was at last recalled to a proper respect for your wisdom and for your authority, I thought that it became me to remain in a sort of sentinelship, which was imposed upon me by my position as a senator and a man of consular rank. Nor did I depart anywhere, nor did...2024-02-0832 minHistory’s Great SpeechesSecond Against Mark Anthony2024-02-0722 min
History’s Great SpeechesMarcus Tullius Cicero, After His Return From Exile, 57BCE Part 2Of what disposition towards me the praetors were, you were able to form an opinion when Lucius Caecilius, in his private character, laboured to support me from his own resources, and in his public capacity proposed a law respecting my safety, in concert with all his colleagues, and refused the plunderers of my property permission to support their actions by legal proceedings. But Marcus Calidius, the moment he was elected, showed by his vote how dear my safety was to him. Caius Septimius, Quintus Valerius, Publius Crassus, Sextus Quintilius, and Caius Cornutus, all devoted all their energies to the...2024-02-0621 minHistory’s Great SpeechesMarcus Tullius Cicero, After His Return From Exile, 57BCE Part1If, O conscript fathers, I return you thanks in a very inadequate manner for your kindness to me, and to my brother, and to my children, (which shall never be forgotten by us,) I beg and entreat you not to attribute it so much to any coldness of my disposition, as to the magnitude of the service which you have done me. For what fertility of genius, what copiousness of eloquence can be so great, what language can be found of such divine and extraordinary power, as to enable any one, I will not say to do due honour...2024-02-0525 minHistory’s Great SpeechesMarcus Tullius Cicero, After His Return From Exile, 57BCEIf, O conscript fathers, I return you thanks in a very inadequate manner for your kindness to me, and to my brother, and to my children, (which shall never be forgotten by us,) I beg and entreat you not to attribute it so much to any coldness of my disposition, as to the magnitude of the service which you have done me. For what fertility of genius, what copiousness of eloquence can be so great, what language can be found of such divine and extraordinary power, as to enable any one, I will not say to do due honour...2024-02-0234 minHistory’s Great SpeechesMarcus Tullius Cicero, De Domo Sua/ In His House, 57BCE pt2 I realise, gentlemen, that I have dwelt upon matters extraneous to the point at issue at greater length than the general feeling, or indeed my own inclination, would approve; but I desired to be absolved of blame in your eyes, and, at the same time, the attentive hearing you have been good enough to lend me has induced me to extend the scope of my speech. I will, however, make amends for this by the brevity I shall observe in my treatment of the matter which is actually submitted to you for inquiry; and since this is divided between a...2024-02-0106 minHistory’s Great SpeechesMarcus Tullius Cicero, De Domo Sua/ In His House, 57BCEMembers of the pontifical college: among the many divinely-inspired expedients of government established by our ancestors, there is none more striking than that whereby they expressed their intention that the worship of the gods and the vital interests of the state should be entrusted to the direction of the same individuals, to the end that citizens of the highest distinction and the brightest fame might achieve the welfare of religion by a wise administration of the state, and of the state by a sage interpretation of religion. And if, on any occasion in the past, a case of high...2024-01-3127 minHistory’s Great SpeechesMarcus Tullius Cicero, On his Consulship, 60BCEOn my honor, if my slaves feared me as all your fellow citizens fear you, I should think I must leave my house. Do not you think you should leave the city? If I say that I was even undeservedly so suspected and hated by my fellow citizens, I would rather flee from their sight than be gazed at by the hostile eyes of every one. And do you, who, from the consciousness of your wickedness, know that the hatred of all men is just and has been long due to you, hesitate to avoid the sight and presence...2024-01-3001 min
History’s Great SpeechesMarcus Tullius Cicero First Speech against Catiline Part 2, 63 BCEOn my honor, if my slaves feared me as all your fellow citizens fear you, I should think I must leave my house. Do not you think you should leave the city? If I say that I was even undeservedly so suspected and hated by my fellow citizens, I would rather flee from their sight than be gazed at by the hostile eyes of every one. And do you, who, from the consciousness of your wickedness, know that the hatred of all men is just and has been long due to you, hesitate to avoid the sight and presence...2024-01-2914 min
History’s Great SpeechesMarcus Tullius Cicero First Speech against Catiline, 63 BCE[also included in Vol1]
WHEN, O Catiline, do you mean to cease abusing our patience? How long is that madness of yours still to mock us? When is there to be an end of that unbridled audacity of yours, swaggering about as it does now? Do not the nightly guards placed on the Palatine Hill—do not the watches posted throughout the city—does not the alarm of the people, and the union of all good men—does not the precaution taken of assembling the senate in this most defensible place—do not the looks and countenances of this...2024-01-2614 min
History’s Great SpeechesJulius Cæsar, The Catiline Conspiracy, 63 BCE[also included in Vol1]
It becomes all men, conscript fathers, who deliberate on dubious matters, to be influenced neither by hatred, affection, anger, nor pity. The mind, when such feelings obstruct its view, can not easily see what is right; nor has any human being consulted, at the same moment, his passions and his interest. When the mind is freely exerted, its reasoning is sound: but passion, if it gain possession of it, becomes its tyrant, and reason is powerless. I could easily mention, conscript fathers, numerous examples of kings and nations, who, swayed by resentment or...2024-01-2511 min
History’s Great SpeechesCato The Younger, Punishment Of The Catiline Conspirators, 63BCE[also included in Vol1]
My feelings, conscript fathers, are extremely different when I contemplate our circumstances and dangers, and when I revolve in my mind the sentiments of some who have spoken before me. Those speakers, as it seems to me, have considered only how to punish the traitors who have raised war against their country, their parents, their altars, and their homes; but the state of affairs warns us rather to secure ourselves against them, than to take counsel as to what sentence we should pass upon them. Other crimes you may punish after they have...2024-01-2409 minHistory’s Great SpeechesLucius Sergius Catilina (Catiline) To His Army Before His Defeat In Battle, 63BCEI am well aware, soldiers, that words can not inspire courage; and that a spiritless army can not be rendered active, or a timid army valiant, by the speech of its commander. Whatever courage is in the heart of a man, whether from nature or from habit, so much will be shown by him in the field; and on him whom neither glory nor danger can move, exhortation is bestowed in vain; for the terror in his breast stops his ears.
I have called you together, however, to give you a few instructions, and to explain to...2024-01-2304 minHistory’s Great SpeechesLucius Sergius Catilina (Catiline) An Exhortation To Conspiracy, 63BCEIf your courage and fidelity had not been sufficiently proved by me, this favorable opportunity would have occurred to no purpose; mighty hopes, absolute power, would in vain be within our grasp; nor should I, depending on irresolution or ficklemindedness, pursue contingencies instead of certainties. But as I have on many remarkable occasions, experienced your bravery and attachment to me, I have ventured to engage in a most important and glorious enterprise. I am aware, too, that whatever advantages or evils affect you, the same affect me; and to have the same desires and the same aversions, is assuredly...2024-01-2204 min
History’s Great SpeechesCaius Marius, Accused Of A Low Origin, 106BCEI am sensible, my fellow citizens, that the eyes of all men are turned upon me; that the just and good favor me, as my services are beneficial to the state, but that the nobility seek occasion to attack me. I must therefore use the greater exertion, that you may not be deceived in me, and that their views may be rendered abortive. I have led such a life, indeed, from my boyhood to the present hour, that I am familiar with every kind of toil and danger; and that exertion which, before your kindness to me, I practised...2024-01-1911 min
History’s Great SpeechesCaius Memmius, A Corrupt Oligarchy, 110BCEWere not my zeal for the good of the state, my fellow citizens, superior to every other feeling, there are many considerations which would deter me from appearing in your cause; I allude to the power of the opposite party, your own tameness of spirit, the absence of all justice, and, above all, the fact that integrity is attended with more danger than honor. Indeed, it grieves me to relate, how, during the last fifteen years, you have been a sport to the arrogance of an oligarchy; how dishonorably, and how utterly unavenged, your defenders have perished; and how...2024-01-1808 minHistory’s Great SpeechesSeason 10: IntroductionIt was a time of great strife. A time of zero social mobility, where only those who ancestors had been lucky had any chance of success, and those who had somehow gained their wealth and prestige the hard way were demonised. Oligarchs controlled society, basking on their inherited wealth and disdaining actual achievement. The law was weaponised, as systems that assumed good faith met an army of men acting in bad faith, and willing to destroy the society around them so long as they got their way. Both conservatives and reformers bowed to crass populism to cover their crimes...2024-01-1703 minHistory’s Great SpeechesSeason 10: Civil War in the Roman Republic2024-01-1600 min
History’s Great SpeechesJohn Calvin On Suffering Persecution, 1553It is true that persons may be found who will foolishly expose themselves to death in maintaining some absurd opinions and reveries conceived by their own brain, but such impetuosity is more to be regarded as frenzy than as Christian zeal; and, in fact, there is neither firmness nor sound sense in those who thus, at a kind of haphazard, cast themselves away. But, however this may be, it is in a good cause only that God can acknowledge us as His martyrs. Death is common to all, and the children of God are condemned to ignominy and tortures...2024-01-1515 min
History’s Great SpeechesJohn Calvin, A Treatise on Relics, 1543 pt4ST LONGINUS, AND THE THREE WISE MEN, OR KINGS.
The individual who pierced the side of our Lord on the cross has been canonised under the name of St Longinus, and after having thus baptized him, they have bestowed upon him two bodies, one of which is at Mantua, and the other at Notre Dame de l'Isle at Lyons.
The same has been done with the wise men who came to worship our Lord at the nativity. In the first place they settled their number, telling us that there were three. Now the Gospel does not mention...2024-01-1220 min
History’s Great SpeechesJohn Calvin, A Treatise on Relics, 1543 pt3There are several carved images, as well as paintings, of Jesus Christ to which many miracles are attributed. Thus the beard grows on the crucifixes of Salvatierra and Orange, and other images are said to shed tears. These things are too absurd for serious refutation, and yet the deluded world is so infatuated that the majority put as much faith in these as in the Gospels.
The Blessed Virgin. — The belief that the body of the Virgin was not interred on earth, but was taken to heaven, has deprived them of all pretext for manufacturing any relics of he...2024-01-1121 min
History’s Great SpeechesJohn Calvin, A Treatise on Relics, 1543 pt2The principal relics of our Lord are, however, those relating to his passion and death. And the first of them is the cross. I know that it is considered to be a certain fact that it was found by Helena, the mother of the Emperor Constantine; and I know also that some ancient doctors have written about the manner in which the discovery was certified that it was the true cross upon which our Lord had suffered. I think, however, that it was a foolish curiosity, and a silly and inconsiderate devotion, which prompted Helena to seek for that...2024-01-1020 min
History’s Great SpeechesJohn Calvin, A Treatise on Relics, 1543 pt1St Augustinus complains, in his work entitled “The Labour of Monks,” that certain people were, even in his time, exercising a dishonest trade, hawking about relics of martyrs, and he adds the following significant words, “should they really be relics of martyrs,”. from which we may infer, that even then abuses and deceits were practised, by making simple folks believe that bones, picked up any where, were bones of saints. Since the origin of this abuse is so ancient, there can be no doubt that it has greatly increased during a long interval of years, particularly as the world has been...2024-01-0920 min
History’s Great SpeechesJohn Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, Book First (Of The Knowledge Of God The Creator), 1535Prefatory Address.
TO HIS MOST CHRISTIAN MAJESTY, THE MOST MIGHTY AND ILLUSTRIOUS MONARCH, FRANCIS, KING OF THE FRENCH, HIS SOVEREIGN; JOHN CALVIN PRAYS PEACE AND SALVATION IN CHRIST.
Sire,— When I first engaged in this work, nothing was farther from my thoughts than to write what should after wards be presented to your Majesty. My intention was only to furnish a kind of rudiments, by which those who feel some interest in religion might be trained to true godliness. And I toiled at the task chiefly for the sake of my country men the French, multitudes of whom...2024-01-0817 min
History’s Great SpeechesMelanchthon On The Death Of Luther, 1546God has always preserved a proportion of His servants upon the earth, and now, through Martin Luther, a more splendid period of light and truth has appeared. Solon, Themistocles, Scipio, Augustus, and others, who either established or ruled over mighty empires, were indeed truly great men, but far, far inferior to our illustrious leaders, Isaiah, John the Baptist, Paul, Augustine, and Luther, and it becomes us to study this distinction. What, then, are those great and important things which Luther has disclosed to our view, and which render his life so remarkable; for many are exclaiming against him as...2024-01-0509 min
History’s Great SpeechesPhilipp Melanchthon - Treatise on the Power and Primacy of the Pope (1537) pt239) Now, it is manifest that the Roman pontiffs, with their adherents, defend godless doctrines and godless services. And the marks of Antichrist plainly agree with the kingdom of the Pope and his adherents. For Paul, in describing Antichrist to the Thessalonians, calls him 2 Thess. 2, 3: an adversary of Christ, who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God. He speaks therefore of one ruling in the Church, not of heathen kings, and he calls this one the adversary of Christ, because he will...2024-01-0419 min
History’s Great SpeechesPhilipp Melanchthon - Treatise on the Power and Primacy of the Pope (1537) pt11) The Roman Pontiff claims for himself that by divine right he is above all bishops and pastors in all Christendom.
2) Secondly, he adds also that by divine right he has both swords, i.e., the authority also of bestowing kingdoms.
3) And thirdly, he says to believe this is necessary for salvation. And for these reasons the Roman bishop calls himself (and boasts that he is) the vicar of Christ on earth.
4) These three articles we hold to be false, godless, tyrannical, and pernicious to the Church.
5) Now, in order that our proof may be understood...2024-01-0318 min
History’s Great SpeechesHuldrych Zwingli, Mercenary Soldiers, 1530The foreign lords have so wheedled and enticed us, simple confederates, seeking their own profit, that at length they have brought us into such danger and disagreement between ourselves that we, not regarding our fatherland, have more care how to maintain them in their wealth and power than to defend our own houses, wives, and children. And this were less had we not shame and damage out of this pact. We have at Naples, at Navarre, at Milan, suffered greater loss in the service of these masters than since we have been a Confederacy; in our own wars we...2024-01-0212 min
History’s Great SpeechesLuther Before The Diet Of Worms, 1520Most Serene Emperor, and You Illustrious Princes and Gracious Lords:—I this day appear before you in all humility, according to your command, and I implore your majesty and your august highnesses, by the mercies of God, to listen with favor to the defense of a cause which I am well assured is just and right. I ask pardon, if by reason of my ignorance, I am wanting in the manners that befit a court; for I have not been brought up in king's palaces, but in the seclusion of a cloister.
Two questions were yesterday put to me...2024-01-0107 min
History’s Great SpeechesMartin Luther - 95 Theses, 1517DISPUTATION OF DOCTOR MARTIN LUTHER ON THE POWER AND EFFICACY OF INDULGENCES
OCTOBER 31, 1517
Out of love for the truth and the desire to bring it to light, the following propositions will be discussed at Wittenberg, under the presidency of the Reverend Father Martin Luther, Master of Arts and of Sacred Theology, and Lecturer in Ordinary on the same at that place. Wherefore he requests that those who are unable to be present and debate orally with us, may do so by letter.
In the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
1. Our Lord and Master...2023-12-2916 min
History’s Great SpeechesGirolamo Savonarola - After His Excommunication, 1498I tell you that whoso opposes this work opposes Christ. Understand me well, O Rome! Whoso opposes this work opposes Christ. O Italy! Whoso opposes this work opposes Christ, O Christian people! If you oppose it you are fighting against Christ, and not against the friar. If you say that the priests of the Church are gathered together against me, I reply that this has come to pass that the prophecies might be fulfilled, even as in our Lord's passion many things were done that the Scriptures might be fulfilled. In this, your hour, you make me perforce a...2023-12-2802 min
History’s Great SpeechesGirolamo Savonarola - A Report On His Embassy To The King, 1495King, 1495
Here I am once more among you. You ask me: "Father, have you brought us some good news?" Yes, good news; I bring nothing but good news. You know that in time of prosperity I brought you bad news, and now, in your tribulation, I bring nothing but good news. Good news for Florence! Bad news for other places! "Oh, but we want to know more, Father. Can you give us particulars?" Well, do you not think that it is a good piece of news that Florence has begun to return to a Christian way of living...2023-12-2704 min
History’s Great SpeechesSeason 9: The Reformation (1495-1553)History can be a soothing pursuit. There’s nothing more comforting than realising that there’s nothing new under the sun, that this has all happened before and will happen again. In this case, we see a cycle that begins in the 1490s and only reaches its peak, with Calvin and Luther, twenty to fifty years later.
Martin Luther and John Calvin are household names, of a type where people have no idea about them other than knowing their importance in Christian thought and culture. It is surprising, therefore, how closely their language and concerns reflect modern times. Mart...2023-12-2602 min
History’s Great SpeechesEugene Debs, The Debs Decision, Scott Nearing, 1919, Part 7-118. THE CLASS STRUGGLE AGAIN!
Classes have come and classes have gone down through the pages of history. Whenever the position of a ruling class has been threatened, the ruling class has crucified the truth-tellers.
Compared with the necessity of protecting ruling class privileges and prerogatives, the right of a man to express his mind goes for nothing. That is the lesson of history and that is what we are witnessing today. Men who have stirred up the people; men who have raised their voices in protest; men who thought straight; men who have loved their fellow men...2023-12-2517 min
History’s Great SpeechesEugene Debs, The Debs Decision, Scott Nearing, 1919, Part 5-65. DEBS TALKS TO THE JUDGE
The jury found Eugene Debs guilty and on Saturday morning the judge pronounced sentence. Before the sentence was given, Debs had another opportunity to tell someone about Socialism—this time it was the judge.
Debs never loses a chance. When the clerk asked him whether he had anything to say he made another Socialist speech. Said he:
"Your Honor, years ago I recognized my kinship with all living beings, and I made up my mind that I was not one bit better than the meanest of earth. I said then, I sa...2023-12-2216 min
History’s Great SpeechesEugene Debs, The Debs Decision, Scott Nearing, 1919, Part 4Excerpts from the speech Debs gae on being sentenced to a decade's imprisonment at the age of 63.
4. DEBS ADDRESSES THE JURY
When the prosecution had finished with its case, the defense rested, and Debs addressed the jury in his own behalf. In that speech to the jury he said again the things that he had said at Canton, and then he added other things that a jury of old men, who had never heard about Socialism, should know about the purposes of the Socialist movement. Here are some of the more important passages as t...2023-12-2127 min
History’s Great SpeechesEugene Debs, The Debs Decision, Scott Nearing, 1919, Part 1-3The first part of an extensive analysis of the decision by the Supreme Court to send Eugene Debs to prison for a decade for sedition. This section summarises the parts of the speech that were pertinent to the court case, and the composition of the court. It also includes a personal refection from meeting Debs the day before the trial.
Scott Nearing, The Debs Decision, 1919
1. THE SUPREME COURT
The Supreme Court of the United States on March 10, 1919, handed down a decision on the Debs case. That decision is far-reaching in its immediate si...2023-12-2023 min
History’s Great SpeechesEugene Debs, Speech of Sedition, 1918, Part 3Part 3 of teh speech that got Debs sent to jail - and this is the big ending. A speech that made me fee like my blood was on fire listening to it, noble, proud, fiery and astute. the speech that all the other speeches wish they were.
They are pressing forward, here, there and everywhere, in all the zones that girdle the globe. Everywhere these awakening workers, these class-conscious proletarians, these hardy sons and daughters of honest toil are proclaiming the glad tidings of the coming emancipation, everywhere their hearts are attuned to the most s...2023-12-1926 min
History’s Great SpeechesEugene Debs, Speech of Sedition, 1918, Part 2Part 2 of the speech that got Debs arrested. The speech builds with a description of the tactics that the powers that be have used to wipe out the socialist voice, and the men and women who have borne the flag with pride.
Scott Nearing! You have heard of Scott Nearing. He is the greatest teacher in the United States. He was in the University of Pennsylvania until the Board of Trustees, consisting of great capitalists, captains of industry, found that he was teaching sound economics to the students in his classes. This sealed his fate i...2023-12-1823 min
History’s Great SpeechesEugene Debs, Speech of Sedition, 1918, Part 1The speech that got Debs imprisoned for a decade begins with calling out the hypocrisy of those who claim to fight for democracy while sending young men to their deaths and enriching themselves off the back of the honest labourer.
Comrades, friends and fellow-workers, for this very cordial greeting, this very hearty reception, I thank you all with the fullest appreciation of your interest in and your devotion to the cause for which I am to speak to you this afternoon.
To speak for labor; to plead the cause of the men and women a...2023-12-1523 min
History’s Great SpeechesEugene Debs, Politicians and Preachers, 1916A quick rant about "the slimy, oily-tongued deceivers of their ignorant, trusting followers, who traffic in the slavery and misery of their fellow-beings that they may tread the paths of ease and bask in the favors of their masters"
"Birds have their nests and foxes have their holes but the Son of Man hath not where to lay his head."
Capitalism has its politicians and militarism its preachers and both are fitly described in the scriptures:
"His watchmen are blind; they are all ignorant; they are dumb dogs; they cannot bark; sleeping, lying d...2023-12-1403 min
History’s Great SpeechesEugene Debs, Jesus, The Supreme Leader, 1914A superbly argued account of how Jesus' message of humanity and social justice has been perverted by those who could not destroy the essential message, even two thousand years later.
It matters little whether Jesus was born at Nazareth or Bethlehem. The accounts conflict, but the point is of no consequence.
It is of consequence, however, that He was born in a stable and cradled in a manger. This fact of itself, about which there is no question, certifies conclusively the proletarian character of Jesus Christ. Had His parents been other than poor working p...2023-12-1310 min
History’s Great SpeechesEugene Debs, Political Appeal To American Workers, 1912The Republicans and Democrats are only different in meaningless ways - in the only way that matters, who they represent and protect, they are one and the same.
Friends, Comrades and Fellow-Workers: We are today entering upon a national campaign of the profoundest interest to the working class and the country. In this campaign there are but two parties and but one issue. There is no longer even the pretense of difference between the so-called Republican and Democratic parties. They are substantially one in what they stand for. They are opposed to each other on n...2023-12-1227 min
History’s Great SpeechesEugene Debs, The Crimson Standard, 1905Why does the red flag have teh same effect on the bull and the plutocrat?
A vast amount of ignorant prejudice prevails against the red flag. It is easily accounted for. The ruling class the wide world over hates it, and its sycophants, therefore, must decry it.
Strange that the red flag should produce the same effect upon a tyrant that it does upon a bull.
The bull is enraged at the very sight of the red flag, his huge frame quivers, his eyes become balls of fire, and he paws the dirt a...2023-12-1102 min
History’s Great SpeechesEugene Debs, Eulogy For John Brown, 1908I feel like Debs had a lot in common with Brown. A personal valedictory to a fallen soldier.
It is fitting that the Red Special should stop here and that we should do honor to John Brown. He was the greatest liberator this country has known. He dared the whole world and gave up his life for freedom. What more can a man do?
A few years ago, I came and followed his steps from this spot all the way to Charles Town, where he was hanged. All the way he was the only c...2023-12-0802 min
History’s Great SpeechesEugene Debs, Class Unionism, 1905, Part 2What is wage-slavery, and how can we organise to break the cycle of exploitation?
When workingmen join the one economic working class organization that unites them upon the basis of the class struggle, they can do something to better their working condition; not only will they have the economic power to do this, but they will represent a new and a vital force to which they are now total strangers—the revolutionary force that industrial unionism generates in the body.
There is something far different between a strike on the part of unions in whi...2023-12-0724 min
History’s Great SpeechesEugene Debs, Class Unionism, 1905, Part 1What is wage-slavery, and how can we organise to break the cycle of exploitation?
When workingmen join the one economic working class organization that unites them upon the basis of the class struggle, they can do something to better their working condition; not only will they have the economic power to do this, but they will represent a new and a vital force to which they are now total strangers—the revolutionary force that industrial unionism generates in the body.
There is something far different between a strike on the part of unions in whi...2023-12-0629 min
History’s Great SpeechesEugene Debs, The Common Labourer, 1890There's nothing unskilled about manual work, even stuff you don't think about - cleaning and digging holes, for example, require real skill and knowledge. Debs takes apart the myth of the 'unskilled' worker.
We use the term “common laborer” in no derogatory sense. There are a vast number of workingmen who are without trades: termed, not always rightfully, “unskilled” laborers. Their importance in carrying forward the great industrial enterprises of the world has not been recognized in the past, and is not appreciated now. In this fact lies the germ of discontent and danger. This magazine...2023-12-0506 min
History’s Great SpeechesSeason 8: The Great American Socialist: Eugene DebsYou need to listen to this album. If this guy was alive today, he'd be the greatest threat capitalism and neoliberalism had ever seen. A railroad man that set up the unions then walked away from them when they became capitalist tools, the enemy of the plutocrat and friend of the working man, won 3% of the Presidential vote in 1920 despite being a socialist and in prison for sedition... a geniune American hero, and one of the best articulators of the need for social justice that's ever been born.
He's my pick for the greatest orator covered so...2023-12-0405 minHistory’s Great SpeechesIn his House Part 22023-12-0425 min
History’s Great SpeechesEugene Debs, Statement to the Court, 1918Being sentenced on trumped-up political charges to tank your political power is as old as politics itself. Debs was sentenced for ten years for sedition for being against hte first world war, but was utterly unbowed.
Your Honor, years ago I recognized my kinship with all living beings, and I made up my mind that I was not one bit better than the meanest on earth. I said then, and I say now, that while there is a lower class, I am in it, and while there is a criminal element I am of it, a...2023-12-0106 min
History’s Great SpeechesEugene Debs, You Railroad Men, 1906A stirring speech from America's greatest socialist, condemning the unions for becoming tools of corporations. Debs explains why the working man must unite and resist the corrupting and dividing influence of corporations, and why government should not treat both as equal.
This appeal is made particularly to railway employes, among whom I began my career as a wage worker, with whom I spent twenty seven consecutive years—the complete span of my young manhood—as a co-employe, labor organizer and union official, and for whom I shall have an affectionate regard of peculiar tenderness that will...2023-11-3037 min
History’s Great SpeechesEduard Bernstein, What Marx Really Taught, 1897Clearing up a confusion about socialism that somehow, still exists 120 years later.
DEAR COMRADE, In your report on my lecture, What Marx Really Taught (Justice, No.632, page 8), there occurs the following passage, “Engels had overstated the condition of society, but Marx’s theory, for all that, holds good all the time.” From this the reader might conclude that I presented the co-founder of the theory of historical materialism as having been less conscious in applying the theory than Marx himself. No idea could be farther from me than this. What I said in t...2023-11-2904 min
History’s Great SpeechesAnnie Besant, Misogny in excelsis, 1887Conservatism and patriarchy mask themselves in many ways, and this punctures them all.
Most sensible women who perused Mr. Belfort Bax’s deliverance on “The Woman Question,” in the last issue of this magazine, will have been conscious of the uprisal of a mingled feeling, which, on analysis, turned out to be composed of one-fourth irritation, and three-fourths amusement. The irritation was a passing emotion, and was quickly followed by the recognition that some truths quite worth the telling had been told, though in an eminently unpleasant way; but the amusement is perman...2023-11-2814 min
History’s Great SpeechesEdward Carpenter, Does It Pay, 1886The real question beneath the distance between modern production and working life - why is maximising your return more important than living a good life?
Having lately embarked in an agricultural enterprise on a small scale, I confess I was somewhat disconcerted, if not actually annoyed, by the persistency with which – from the very outset, and when I had been only two or three months at work – I was met by the question at the head of this paper. Not only sisters, cousins, and aunts, but relations much more remote, and mere acquaintances, at the...2023-11-2710 min
History’s Great SpeechesWilliam Morris, Art and Socialism, 1884 pt2Morris investigates the need of humans for productive labour that is profitale to the spirit more than the wallet.
Betwixt the days in which we now live and the end of the Middle Ages, Europe has gained freedom of thought, increase of knowledge, and huge talent for dealing with the material forces of nature; comparative political freedom withal and respect for the lives of civilized men, and other gains that go with these things: nevertheless I say deliberately that if the present state of Society is to endure, she has bought these gains at...2023-11-2425 min
History’s Great SpeechesWilliam Morris, Art and Socialism, 1884 pt1Art should be the right of every person, both to enjoy and produce. Capitalism makes it available only to the wealthy.
My friends, I want you to look into the relations of Art to Commerce, using the latter word to express what is generally meant by it; namely, that system of competition in the market which is indeed the only form which most people now-a-days suppose that Commerce can take.
Now whereas there have been times in the world's history when Art held the supremacy over Commerce; when Art was a good de...2023-11-2324 min
History’s Great SpeechesSeason 7: The Rise of Socialism (1884-1918)It's fascinating how much early socialism dealt with the same issues that arise in it today. This volume goes from the abstraction of the artist to the concerns of the railroad worker.
The birth of liberation movements in the nineteenth century also saw a rise in those fighting for the rights of working men and women, whose oppression remained unabated.
We begin with the poet William Morris, who believed that it was the right of every person to enjoy the fruits of art, both in the production and consumption, for the art of...2023-11-2203 min
History’s Great SpeechesMark Twain, On The Decay Of The Art of Lying, 1882A very fun stroll bemoaning the loss of that most wonderful art, telling ridiculous tall tales.
ESSAY, FOR DISCUSSION, READ AT A MEETING OF THE HISTORICAL AND ANTIQUARIAN CLUB OF HARTFORD, AND OFFERED FOR THE THIRTY-DOLLAR PRIZE. [*Did not take the prize.]
Observe, I do not mean to suggest that the custom of lying has suffered any decay or interruption—no, for the Lie, as a Virtue, A Principle, is eternal; the Lie, as a recreation, a solace, a refuge in time of need, the fourth Grace, the tenth Muse, man's best and surest fri...2023-11-2113 min
History’s Great SpeechesSwami Vivekananda, The Parliament of Religions, 27 SeptIt's nice to note that the World Parliament of Religions started up again in the last couple of decades, as shown here, the first one served a valuable purpose for the world.
The World’s Parliament of Religions has become an accomplished fact, and the merciful Father has helped those who laboured to bring it into existence, and crowned with success their most unselfish labour.
My thanks to those noble souls whose large hearts and love of truth first dreamed this wonderful dream and then realized it. My thanks to the shower of l...2023-11-2002 min
History’s Great SpeechesSwami Vivekananda, Buddhism and Hinduism, 26 SeptAn unpacking of Buddhism and Hinduism's closely interlocking insights.
I am not a Buddhist, as you have heard, and yet I am. If China, or Japan, or Ceylon follow the teachings of the Great Master, India worships him as God incarnate on earth. You have just now heard that I am going to criticize Buddhism, but by that I wish you to understand only this. Far be it from me to criticize him whom I worship as God incarnate on earth. But our views about Buddha are that he was not understood properly by...2023-11-1704 min
History’s Great SpeechesSwami Vivekananda, Christian Criticism, 20 SeptWhy send missionaries and bibles when people are starving to death? Well, quite.
Christians must always be ready for good criticism, and I hardly think that you will mind if I make a little criticism. You Christians, who are so fond of sending out missionaries to save the soul of the heathen-why do you not try to save their bodies from starvation? In India, during the terrible famines, thousands died from hunger, yet you Christians did nothing. You erect churches all through India, but the crying evil in the East is not religion-they ha...2023-11-1601 min
History’s Great SpeechesSwami Vivekananda, Paper On Hinduism, 19 SeptPart 2 of an overview of Hinduism for those with no real knowledge of it.
And what becomes of a man when he attains perfection? He lives a life of bliss infinite. He enjoys infinite and perfect bliss, having obtained the only thing in which man ought to have pleasure, namely God, and enjoys the bliss with God.
So far all the Hindus are agreed. This is the common religion of all the sects of India; but, then, perfection is absolute, and the absolute cannot be two or three. It cannot have any qu...2023-11-1530 min
History’s Great SpeechesSwami Vivekananda, Response To Welcome, 11 & 15 SeptThe speeches the introduced Hinduism to the west.
Sisters and Brothers of America,
It fills my heart with joy unspeakable to rise in response to the warm and cordial welcome which you have given us. I thank you in the name of the most ancient order of monks in the world; I thank you in the name of the mother of religions; and I thank you in the name of the millions and millions of Hindu people of all classes and sects.
My thanks, also, to some of the speakers on this platform w...2023-11-1405 min
History’s Great SpeechesSusan B. Anthony, Women’s Right to Vote, 1873"We just went through a civil war because all people should be free and able to vote - so why not women?"
Friends and fellow citizens: I stand before you tonight under indictment for the alleged crime of having voted at the last presidential election, without having a lawful right to vote. It shall be my work this evening to prove to you that in thus voting, I not only committed no crime, but, instead, simply exercised my citizen's rights, guaranteed to me and all United States citizens by the National Constitution, beyond the power o...2023-11-1304 min
History’s Great SpeechesChief Joseph, I Will Fight No More Forever, 1877The saddest speech in the collected volumes, as a chief admits his final defeat. You can hear that bitter wind blowing across the empty prairies as he speaks.
Tell General Howard I know his heart. What he told me before, I have it in my heart. I am tired of fighting. Our Chiefs are killed; Looking Glass is dead, Ta Hool Hool Shute is dead. The old men are all dead. It is the young men who say yes or no. He who led on the young men is dead. It is cold, and we h...2023-11-1001 min
History’s Great SpeechesAbraham Lincoln, The Gettysburg Address, 1863A great many died in the American Civil War, and here Lincoln exhorts people to remember their sacrifice and honour their great task.
Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.
Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a...2023-11-0901 min
History’s Great SpeechesAbraham Lincoln, Second Annual Message to Congress, 1862A speech that still gives me chills. I initially discovered it by accident via Babylon 5, as Sheridan quotes it. Given at the height of the civil war, it's the ultimate rallying cry. "We shall nobly save, or meanly lose, the last, best hope of Earth"
Fellow-Citizens of the Senate and House of Representatives:
Since your last annual assembling another year of health and bountiful harvests has passed, and while it has not pleased the Almighty to bless us with a return of peace, we can but press on, guided by the best li...2023-11-0805 min
History’s Great SpeechesLéon Gambetta, Peasant Education, 1872A theme that pops up a lot in the late C19th - no genuine progress can be made in society until the lowest classes have full access to a decent education.
The peasantry is intellectually several centuries behind the enlightened and educated classes in this country. The distance between them and us is immense. We have received a classical or scientific education—even the imperfect one of our day. We have learned to read our history, to speak our language, while (a cruel thing to say) so many of our count...2023-11-0705 min
History’s Great SpeechesLouis Kossuth, Welcome To New York, 1861A speech that feels like it should be put up alongside the statue of liberty, forming the perfect complement to the message of hope and refuge.
Let me, before I go to work, have some hours of rest upon this soil of freedom, your happy home. Freedom and home; what heavenly music in those two words! Alas! I have no home, and the freedom of my people is downtrodden. Young Giant of free America, do not tell me that thy shores are an asylum to the oppressed and a home to the homeless ex...2023-11-0609 minHistory’s Great SpeechesA. M. Sullivan, The Zulu War, 18792023-11-0308 min
History’s Great SpeechesOtto von Bismarck, Canossa, 1872A speech showing the cracks in the political power of the Catholic Church as it clashes with the Prussian Empire.
I am glad that no motion has been introduced to cancel this item. Notwithstanding all that has come and gone, it would be inexpedient to suspend diplomatic relations with the pope. In the first place, the diplomatic representative whose salary I recommend you to grant is a public servant whose intercession may every now and then be indispensable to protect the interest of German subjects; and, secondly, which is a much more important consideration, there i...2023-11-0207 min
History’s Great SpeechesOtto von Bismarck, Blood and Iron, 1862How shuld we maintain society? Bismarck's answer is through the same methods as always - nationalism, blood, and iron.
There are members of the National Association – of this association that has achieved a reputation owing to the justness of its demands – highly esteemed members who have stated that all standing armies are superfluous. Yes, if only a public assembly had this view! Would not a government have to reject this?! – There was talk about the “sobriety” of the Prussian people. Yes, the great independence of the individual makes it difficult in Prussia to govern with...2023-11-0102 min
History’s Great SpeechesSeason 6: The Era of Liberation (1862-1893)A fascinating dive into a period when everyone was fighting for their liberation from imperial oppression. This was the time the modern nation-state was forged, and the consequences of these events is coded deep into our cultures. Starts with a quick overview of probably the most diverse set of speakers in this series, from British MPs to Native American chiefs, and from a grand imperial leader to a political exile.
The late 19th Century was a time of liberation. After the collapse of empires, people of all creeds demanded their equality.
We begin with tw...2023-10-3102 min
History’s Great SpeechesPyotr Kropotkin, Act for Yourselves, 1887This is the heart of anarchism; we can and should think and act for ourselves, not because an authority or profit demands it of us.
A question which we are often asked is: “How will you organize the future society on Anarchist principles?” If the question were put to Herr Bismarck, or to somebody who fancies that a group of men is able to organize society as they like, it would seem very natural. But in the ears of an Anarchist it sounds very strangely, and the only answer we can give to it is: “We cann...2023-10-3010 min
History’s Great SpeechesLouis Lingg, The Chicago Anarchists, 1886A speech given on sentence of death, utterly filled with contempt for the corruption of the authorities who exist purely for the capitalists.
Court of Justice: With the same irony with which you have regarded my efforts to win, in this "free land of America," a livelihood such as human-kind is worthy to enjoy, do you now, after condemning me to death, concede me the liberty of making a final speech.
I accept your concession; but it is only for the purpose of exposing the injustice, the calumnies, and the outrages which have been h...2023-10-2708 min
History’s Great SpeechesMikhail Bakunin, Solidarity in Liberty: The Workers’ Path to Freedom, 1867True freedom means everyone, and everything, not just lip service and seperation. "I cannot be free in idea until I am free in fact. To be free in idea and not free in fact is to be in revolt. To be free in fact is to have my liberty and my right, find their confirmation and sanction in the liberty and right of all mankind. I am free only when all men are my equals. (first and foremost economically)."
From this truth of practical solidarity or fraternity of struggle that I have laid down as t...2023-10-2606 min
History’s Great SpeechesMikhail Bakunin, Where I Stand, 1862A clear summary of the original socialist argument - should we found outrselves on communism or anarchism?
I am a passionate seeker after truth (and no less embittered enemy of evil doing fictions) which the party of order, this official, privileged and interested representative of all the past and present religions, metaphysical, political, juridical and "social" atrociousness claim to employ even today only to make the world stupid and enslave it, I am a fanatical lover of truth and freedom which I consider the only surroundings in which intelligence, consciousness and happiness develop an...2023-10-2506 min
History’s Great SpeechesProudhon, Interest and Principle, 1849A speech that is utterly relevant today, and intimately tied with the idea that property is robbery. Making money from interest is a sin, yet it is the foundation of our society; and in that foundation society is corrupted absolutely.
The Circulation of Capital, Not Capital Itself, Gives Birth to Progress
Thus it is with interest on capital, legitimate when a loan was a service rendered by citizen to citizen, but which ceases to be so when society has acquired the power to organize credit gratuitously for everybody. This interest, I say, is...2023-10-2411 min
History’s Great SpeechesProudhon, The Nature and Destination of Government, 1849What, precisely, is a government for? Is it because we need dominion, or because something must act to ensure freedom for all?
There must, says holy Scripture, be factions: For there must be heresies. – Terrible. There must! writes Bossuet in profound adoration, without daring to search for the reason behind this There must!
A little reflection has revealed to us the principle and the significance of factions: the point is to know their goal and their end.
All men are equal and free: society, by nature and destination, is thus autonomous, one might say...2023-10-2317 min
History’s Great SpeechesProudhon, The Coming Era of Mutualism, 1849A hope that seemed to come into being in fits and bursts, but now seems to be diminishing once more.
If I am not deceived, my readers must be convinced at least of one thing, that Social Truth is not to be looked for either in Utopia or in the Old Routine; that Political Economy is not the Science of Society, and yet that it contains the elements of such a science, even as chaos before creation contained the elements of the universe; and finally, that in order to arrive at the definitive organization which w...2023-10-2204 min
History’s Great SpeechesProudhon - God is Evil, Man is Free, 1849 pt1A speech explaining that man is the final and true measure of all things; what God does is random and chaotic, and not worthy of our respect or attention.
My friends beg me, in the interest of our common ideas, and to remove any pretext for slander, to make my opinion known on the divinity and Providence, and at the same time to explain certain passages from the System of Contradictions, that the reactionary tartuffes have for a year constantly exploited against socialism with simple and credulous souls.
I surrender to their solicitations. I w...2023-10-2129 min
History’s Great SpeechesJohn Calvin, A Treatise on Relics, 1543 pt2The principal relics of our Lord are, however, those relating to his passion and death. And the first of them is the cross. I know that it is considered to be a certain fact that it was found by Helena, the mother of the Emperor Constantine; and I know also that some ancient doctors have written about the manner in which the discovery was certified that it was the true cross upon which our Lord had suffered. I think, however, that it was a foolish curiosity, and a silly and inconsiderate devotion, which prompted Helena to seek for that...2023-10-2120 min
History’s Great SpeechesPierre Joseph Proudhon, The Malthusians, the Representatives of the People, 1848Mathlus was hugely popular, and it's fascinating that Proudhon's criticism of Mathusian politicians, who insist there isn't enough for everyone, still holds true.
Dr. Malthus, an economist, an Englishman, once wrote the following words:
“A man who is born into a world already possessed, if he cannot get subsistence from his parents on whom he has a just demand, and if the society do not want his labor, has no claim of right to the smallest portion of food, and, in fact, has no business to be where he is. At nature’s migh...2023-10-2015 min
History’s Great SpeechesSeason 5: The Birth of AnarchismThe nineteenth century saw the much-maligned philosophy of anarchism come into being. As a direct assault on the idea that people could not be trusted to rule themselves or be equal, it's message has been distorted from almost the beginning, but this is where it all began.
Mankind can rule itself without the force of top-down authority, and freedom is more than just choosing how to meet the needs and demands of capital. Inequality is structural and intentional, not inevitable and necessary.
It does not have to be this way. In solidarity, we are be...2023-10-1902 min