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4th Estate
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This eBook first published in Great Britain in 2017 by 4th Estate
Copyright © Philip Collins 2017
Philip Collins asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Excerpts from ‘I Have a Dream’ speech by Martin Luther King Jr reprinted by arrangement with The Heirs to the Estate of Martin Luther King Jr., c/o Writers House as agent for the proprietor New York, NY. Copyright © Martin Luther King Jr 1963, renewed copyright © Coretta Swift King 1991. We are also grateful to Chatham House, the Royal Institute of International Affairs, for permission to reproduce the extract entitled ‘The speech from the Berlin Sportsplatz 1938’ from The Speeches of Adolf Hitler April 1922 – August 1939 (1942), Adolf Hitler and Professor Norman Hepburn Baynes, Oxford University Press and Royal Institute of International Affairs. Speech by Isidora Dolores Ibárruri Gómez (La Pasionaria), ‘No Pasarán’, 1936, reproduced courtesy of Lawrence & Wishart.
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Source ISBN: 9780008235680
Ebook Edition © October 2017 ISBN: 9780008235673
Version: 2018-05-01
To the memory of Jennifer Anne Taylor (1942–2014) and Frederick John Collins (1940–2015)
Contents
PROLOGUE – The Perils of Indifference
CHAPTER 1 – Democracy: Through Politics the People Are Heard
CHAPTER 2 – War: Through Politics Peace Will Prevail
CHAPTER 3 – Nation: Through Politics the Nation Is Defined
CHAPTER 4 – Progress: Through Politics the Condition of the People Is Improved
CHAPTER 5 – Revolution: Through Politics the Worst Is Avoided
EPILOGUE – When They Go Low, We Go High
PAPERBACK EXCLUSIVE – The Rights of Man
I have been privileged to write speeches in one great institution and about them in another. In 10 Downing Street I had the pleasure of writing for Tony Blair, which changed the course of my career, if such a word is appropriate for my random array of jobs. The Times then took me in and my thanks are due to Daniel Finkelstein for suggesting that move in the first place. Then also to successive editors, James Harding and John Witherow, for commissioning the speech analysis format which I have followed in this book.
For the way the format stretched into an ambitious thesis, I salute Claire Conrad, my agent, and Helen Garnons-Williams, my editor, whose diplomatic skill in making a major rewrite sound like a tweak was exemplary. I think I minded more, not less, because she was always right. Thanks to Siobhan Reynolds for reading things so that I didn’t have to and to the team at 4th Estate for doing such a professional job, so quickly. I hope I did the same.
Finally, an enormous yes to Geeta Guru-murthy and the two perfect perishers, my chief critics, Hari and Mani Collins. If any errors have eluded their searching questions the fault for that will be mine. That’s their story, anyway. My story is in the pages that follow.
Marcus Tullius Cicero: First Philippic against
