Speechmaking in Australia history

Ken Inglis

Allan Martin's two principal subjects as a historian, Sir Henry Parkes and Sir Robert Menzies, were both great orators. Among questions to be asked in this lecture are the following. When can a speech be said to have affected history? What has become of that once popular institution the public meeting and that once popular form the sermon? What is the future for speechmaking in an age of speechwriters, doorstop interviews, sound grabs, power points and the internet?

Ken Inglis enjoyed Allan's friendship for more than forty years. They were long-time colleagues in the history department of the ANU's Research School of Social Sciences, and worked closely together on the ten-volume bicentennial project initiated in that department, Australians. A Historical Library.