"The book is arranged by theme and occasion: Memorials and Patriotic Speeches, War and Revolution Speeches, Tributes and Eulogies, Debates and Argumentation, Trial Speeches, Gallows and Farewell Speeches, Sermons, Inspirational Speeches, Lectures and Instructive Speeches, Speeches of Social Responsibility, Media Speeches, Political Speeches (in Safire's words, "the anthologist's mother's milk"), and Commencement Addresses. Each speech is expertly introduced by the editor, who places the speech's occasion in historical context and analyzes the particular techniques that give the speech its force and effect. William Safire enlivens many of these introductions with personal anecdotes of the circumstances of the speechmaker and the speech. His Introduction is a brisk, compact, effective short course in how to make a great speech - with a cornucopia of examples to follow." "No one faced with the need to go before an audience of any size to argue, persuade, uplift, introduce, memorialize, or amuse should be without Lend Me Your Ears. It serves equally as a work of permanent reference use and as a treasure-house for the browser in search of inspiration, instruction, and entertainment. In this anthology, editor and subject matter have met to result in a book that draws from the ages - and that will last for decades as the definitive word on human eloquence."--BOOK JACKET.

The bestselling historical novel that exposes the less than honorable side of our Founding Fathers by the Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist. In this gripping and timely work, William Safire unveils the story behind the nation's first great political scandals. James Thomson Callender, the "scandalmonger" of the title, is an ambitious gossip-peddling editor secretly hired by Thomas Jefferson as a political weapon. After carefully damaging Alexander Hamilton's reputation, thereby paving the way for Jefferson's success, Callender is shunned by the very politicians on whose behalf he was jailed for sedition. Broke and betrayed, Callender seeks revenge by exposing an illicit affair between Jefferson and his slave Sally Hemmings, an accusation that ultimately cost Callender his career and would not be authenticated for two centuries. By using actual letters, records, and notes to re-create dialogue and events, Scandalmonger embodies historical fiction at its best, politics at its most intriguing, and our Founding Fathers at their most notorious. For those who think that Washington sex scandals and lurid journalism are recent developments, this novel will be a revelation, for Safire shows how media intrusiveness into private lives-and politicians' cool manipulation of the press-are practices as old as the Constitution.