Safire, William 1929-2009

Lend me your ears : great speeches in history ( Book )
10 editions published between 1992 and 2006 in English and held by 3,418 libraries worldwide
"Lend Me Your Ears collects, in one immensely rich compendium, some two hundred of history's outstanding instances of oratorical eloquence. They are selected, arranged, and introduced by William Safire, one of America's most influential political columnists, himself a former speechwriter and language scholar. From Demosthenes mounting an angry defense against his attackers in one of his immortal philippics, to Abraham Lincoln consecrating the memory of the Union dead at Gettysburg, to Winston Churchill rallying a beleaguered Britain with a promise of "blood, toil, sweat and tears," to Salman Rushdie unexpectedly electrifying an audience with his paean to the necessity of free speech - this anthology contains the finest examples of the art of speechmaking in human experience." "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.".

Freedom by William Safire ( Book )
13 editions published between 1987 and 2008 in English and Undetermined and held by 2,682 libraries worldwide
On cover: A novel of Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War. A historical novel exploring the first two years of the Civil War.

Safire's political dictionary by William Safire ( Book )
26 editions published between 1972 and 2008 in English and Undetermined and held by 2,627 libraries worldwide
This entertaining and informative dictionary lists words and phrases peculiar to government officials and politicians, analyzing their meanings and tracing their origins.

Before the fall : an inside view of the pre-Watergate White House by William Safire ( Book )
14 editions published between 1975 and 2005 in English and held by 1,913 libraries worldwide
The former Nixon speechwriter provides anecdotal accounts of the people, policies, events, and atmosphere in the Nixon White House before the Watergate evacuation.

On language by William Safire ( Book )
14 editions published between 1980 and 1983 in 4 languages and held by 1,813 libraries worldwide
Includes chapters on slang, jargon, and neologisms.

Full disclosure : a novel by William Safire ( Book )
19 editions published between 1977 and 1985 in 4 languages and held by 1,803 libraries worldwide
In the mid-1980's, the forty-first President of the United States is blinded in an assassination attempt and must cope with an international crisis and with domestic pressure demanding his resignation.

Scandalmonger by William Safire ( Book )
14 editions published between 2000 and 2011 in English and held by 1,764 libraries worldwide
This volume 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 dialog and events, this work 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 it shows how media intrusiveness into private lives-and politicians' cool manipulation of the press-are practices as old as the Constitution.

Sleeper spy by William Safire ( Book )
9 editions published between 1995 and 1999 in 4 languages and held by 1,341 libraries worldwide
A hunt by CIA and Russian agents for the old KGB's financial assets in the U.S., in possession of a spy whose name is unknown even to the Russians because files were destroyed. Leading the U.S. effort to lure the man into the open is an American journalist.

The first dissident : the book of Job in today's politics by William Safire ( Book )
5 editions published in 1992 in English and held by 1,283 libraries worldwide
William Safire, one of America's most influential political columnists, applies the Book of Job to the politics of today. In The First Dissident he shows how modern heroes have reshaped authority and history - and how individual citizens can, too - by following the courageous example of Job. The Bible's Book of Job is the story of a good man who dares to challenge God's judgment. Job's search for the answer to apparent injustice in God's design has stirred religious controversy and inspired readers for 2,500 years. Tennyson called the Book of Job "the greatest poem of ancient and modern times." D. H. Lawrence described it as "the story of your own soul." Safire's provocative exploration interprets Job - the innocent, angry sufferer - as the original dissenter. He shows how the biblical story can serve as inspiration and instruction manual for modern leaders and citizens, a primer on effective protest - when to dissent, how to force authority to listen, what kinds of persuasion work, why it is important for leaders to avoid isolation. He illuminates the timeless role of dissent in shaping power and influencing even the highest authority. And he draws modern-day parallels in the struggles of such human rights leaders as Mustapha Barzani, Martin Luther King, Jr., Natan Sharansky, Vaclav Havel, and others. The First Dissident is written in William Safire's insightful style of informal scholarship and is studded with anecdotes and examples drawn from Safire's wide-ranging political experience in the White House as speechwriter and in covering global politics for The New York Times. The First Dissident reaches across the millennia to show how any person, armed with a sense of righteousness, can engage with higher authority to protest unfair treatment - and thereby change the world.

What's the good word by William Safire ( Book )
7 editions published between 1982 and 1983 in English and held by 1,210 libraries worldwide