What can a person and their words accomplish when the enemy is right at your doorstep? When all you see around is famine and unemployment? When you are off to prison for simply asserting your basic rights as a human being? What can oratory do? It can breathe fire into the hearts of people; it can fill you with hope amidst turmoil; it can stop wars; it can start revolutions. Be it now or hundreds of years ago, the art of oratory has served as a powerful tool for political and societal change. From political oratory of Queen Elizabeth, motivating her troops, from Patrick Henry voicing his willingness to die for freedom, to the historically epic oratory of Abraham Lincoln s legendary Gettysburg Address and Martin Luther King Jr. s I Have a Dream, kings, queens, political leaders, women activists, writers, and even convicts, all have something to say through their power-packed words and theatrics, all of which has been covered in our edition of fifty of the finest oratory in human history, capturing this art in all its beauty and diversity.