Public Speech and the Culture of Public Life in the Age of GladstoneBy the last decades of the nineteenth century, more people were making more speeches to greater numbers in a wider variety of venues than at any previous time. This book argues that a recognizably modern public life was created in Victorian Britain largely through the instrumentality of public speech. Shedding new light on the careers of many of the most important figures of the Victorian era and beyond, including Gladstone, Disraeli, Sir Robert Peel, John Bright, Joseph Chamberlain, Winston Churchill, Lloyd George, Charles Haddon Spurgeon, and Canon Liddon, the book traces the ways in which oratory came to occupy a central position in the conception and practice of Victorian public life. Not a study of rhetoric or a celebration of great oratory, the book stresses the social developments that led to the production and consumption of these speeches. |
Other editions - View all
Public Speech and the Culture of Public Life in the Age of Gladstone Joseph S. Meisel Limited preview - 2001 |
Public Speech and the Culture of Public Life in the Age of Gladstone Joseph S. Meisel No preview available - 2001 |
Common terms and phrases
Anglican Anti-Corn Law League audience barrister-MPs barristers became Birmingham Bright Britain British Cambridge Union career cathedral Chamberlain Charles James Fox Church Churchill contemporaries Court courtroom Debating Society delivered diary Disraeli Disraeli’s eighteenth century election England English example extra-parliamentary Gladstone Gladstone’s Hall History Home Rule House of Commons important John John Bright Joseph Chamberlain jury later Latin quotations lawyers Liberal Liddon London Lord Randolph Lord Randolph Churchill Matthew Metropolitan Tabernacle Midlothian Midlothian campaign Minister Newnham Newnham College nineteenth century Nonconformist notable orator oratory Oxford Union Oxford Union Society Parliament Parliamentary Eloquence parliamentary oratory parliamentary speech party Paul’s Peel Peel’s percent Pitt Pitt’s platform speaking political politicians popular practice preachers preaching public speaking public speech pulpit Quoted Reform reports rhetorical second half sermons social Solicitor speakers speech-making spoke Spurgeon style Tabernacle Tait tion trial tury Union presidents Union Society University Press Victorian vols William wrote