Here, collected in an elegant volume, is the authoritative selection of Washington's thoughts and observations culled from his public and private correspondence. As we read his comments on subjects as diverse as government, foreign policy, religious freedom, friendship, character, and relations between the sexes, we find that his words are often as applicable to our own time as they were to his.

Boldly breaking the mold of previous anthologies, Words of a Century: The Top 100 American Speeches, 1900-1999 contains the complete--and authentic--texts of the best American speeches of the twentieth century as delivered to their immediate audiences. It features a remarkable array of speakers, from Woodrow Wilson, Clarence Darrow, and Carrie Chapman Catt to Martin Luther King, Ronald Reagan, John F. Kennedy, and Barbara Jordan.
As diverse in type as they are in subject matter, the speeches open a unique window on the twentieth century, and many continue to resonate in our own...