UNDELIVERED

Imagining the world as it might have been.

Veteran speechwriter Nussbaum highlights the contingencies of history by examining crucial speeches that, because of a change of events or a speaker’s change of mind, never were given. “Each of these speeches,” he writes, “provides a window into the fraught moments in which it was penned.” Besides offering key excerpts, and in some cases the entire speech, the author provides historical and biographical context, close readings for language and style, and speculations about how the speech might have altered the course of subsequent events. Among the undelivered speeches he identifies are John Lewis’ proposed remarks at the March on Washington, D.C., in 1963; Native American leader Wamsutta Frank James’ speech at the 350th anniversary of the Pilgrim landing at Plymouth Rock; Helen Keller’s brief remarks at a suffrage parade in 1913, undelivered because of mob rioting; “the speech President Nixon was prepared to make refusing to resign in 1974”; Edward VIII’s equivocation about abdicating in 1939; Dwight Eisenhower’s apology in case of the failure of D-Day; Emperor Hirohito’s “shame-ridden apology for his role in starting World War II”; Condoleezza Rice’s foreign policy speech, planned for Sept. 11, 2001; and Hillary Clinton’s victory speech in 2016. Some of these texts, unearthed by Nussbaum, currently Joe Biden’s senior speechwriter, had been filed away for decades. Edward’s words, for example were rediscovered after nearly 70 years in documents released by the British Public Record Office in 2003. His plan—quashed by his ministers—“was to say that he wished to marry Mrs. Simpson, but neither of them would insist that she be queen. He would then go away to a foreign country while people made up their minds. If he were called back, he would resume his reign with Mrs. Simpson as his consort. If he weren’t, he would abdicate.” Nussbaum speculates that if Edward—sympathetic to Germany—had continued as king, the course of the war would have been dramatically different.

A fresh perspective on history.