Ben Rhodes's deft third nonfiction book, All We Say, examines the history of U.S. self-conception through 15 key moments in U.S. rhetoric. Through powerful speeches delivered by titans such as Benjamin Franklin and Frederick Douglass, as well as lesser-known figures such as Seneca leader Red Jacket and suffragette Anna Dickinson, Rhodes (The World As It Is) chronicles the shifting ways that people in the U.S. have defined themselves as a nation through words.
Rhodes, a former speechwriter and adviser to President Barack Obama, explores the remarkable power of public addresses--to comfort, to warn, and to sway the tide of public opinion. He provides historical context for the events surrounding each speech, including wars and conflicts, the Great Depression, social movements related to suffrage and civil rights, and the profound 21st-century divisions in U.S. political society. With a keen understanding of rhetorical strategies and a lucid view of the country's triumphs and failures, Rhodes shows how each speech reveals layers of U.S. identity, capturing the nation as it is (or was) at each moment, and the nation as it aspires to be. Throughout, he calls on U.S. speakers to hold the country accountable to its founding principles: the ideals of equality and freedom that have never quite become reality for all who live in the U.S.
"Nations, like people, choose who we are," Rhodes notes in his epilogue. All We Say urges people in the U.S. to acknowledge their nation's checkered history and work toward a future where the country's lofty rhetorical ideals match its civil and political realities. --Katie Noah Gibson, blogger at Cakes, Tea and Dreams