"Give me liberty," demanded Patrick Henry, "or give medeath!" Henry''s words continue to echo in American history, and that quote, andthe speech it comes from, remains one of the two or three known to almost everyAmerican. The other speeches that have become part of our American collectiveconsciousness all have one theme in common: liberty. These feats of orationseem to trace the evolution of America''s definition of liberty and whom itapplies to.
But what exactly is liberty? It is a term open to a broad range of opinion, and questionsabout freedom arise daily in the news and in everyday life. Perhaps uniquelyamong the nations of the world, the United States traces its origins to groupsand individuals who specifically wanted to create something new. Webber''sinsightful Give Me Liberty looks atthese great speeches and provides the historical context, focusing attention onparticular individuals who summed up the issues of their own day in words thathave never been forgotten. Webber gleans lessons from the past centuries thatwill allow us to continue to strive for the ideals of liberty in thetwenty-first century.
Sure to become a classic of American oratorical history, Give Me Liberty reveals the enduringpower of America''s quest for a freer and more just society and the context ofthe speeches and speakers-from Daniel Webster and Patrick Henry to MartinLuther King Jr. and Ronald Reagan-that gave voice to the struggle.
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