What do you think?
Rate this book
Latter-day Eloquence: Two Centuries of Mormon Oratory
The epic story of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints cannot be told without including its dedication to speechmaking and eloquence. Richard Benjamin Crosby and Isaac James Richards collect important speeches from a broad range of sources that highlight the history, diversity, and centrality of public speaking in Latter-day Saint life. An expert introduces each speech while offering perspective on its place in Latter-day Saint history. The collected works express a diversity of viewpoints and experiences at odds with the notion that Latter-day Saints speak in a single voice while declaring the significance of the Latter-day Saint faith in their lives.
Essential and one-of-a-kind, Latter-day Eloquence provides a foundational reference for the study of Latter-day Saint rhetoric and oratory.
Essential and one-of-a-kind, Latter-day Eloquence provides a foundational reference for the study of Latter-day Saint rhetoric and oratory.
676 pages, Kindle Edition
Published June 2, 2026
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 1 of 1 review
October 29, 2026
My thoughts organize around 2 levels as it were:
1. The contents of the rhetoric i.e. as one “hearing” and consuming in the first instance.
I was initially disappointed by the compilation, feeling as though the title and expressed intent (to illustrate LDS rhetoric through 2 centuries of evolution) was false marketing. The first speech is from 1831 not 1820 as suggested by the title (a marketing-driven obfuscation). The first speech isn’t a speech. The second seemed an illustration of ineffective persuasion … hellfire and damnation from an angry mother. Then …
Having read 55% (or ~30 of 55 speeches) of Latter-Day Eloquence I am impressed by the selections (variety, breadth, ability to illustrate, etc), the elucidation of each (by their contributor), and the (serendipitous?) relevance of their content. Regarding the latter, I think their relevance less serendipitous and more a function of never-resolved (perhaps never-resolvable) tensions which trouble particularly those who seek to be informed, alert, and thinking in the practice of their faith then as today (without regard to a moment in time).
Interestingly, I’ve previously encountered several essays / speeches, which is not at all surprising given their significance topically and historically. Eagerly would I read most of them repeatedly.
I’ve read / am reading so many good books. Headshakingly good. Addictive in a most positive sense. How might I make the content “mine?” Would that I could. Perhaps they are in the sense that meaning is in some sense a remembering tho’ surely it must be more as it becomes informed by mortality.
At 85% read: As one might anticipate from the title the selections move through time. The forward makes plain the movement through varied forums. And audiences. And topics. And genders. And…
Nevertheless I find myself experiencing viscerally a facet of variation I’d not anticipated. And I’m not certain how to articulate the facet or the emotion.
First an attempt at the facet. (The speaker’s) relationship in the seemingly universal quest for meaning (in life).
Next an attempt at emotion. Visceral. Strummed. Cellular-level resonance. Descriptive (of my vacillating relationship with the pursuit of truth / Truth (what I feel makes life meaningful for me). Inspirational (of a relationship I both long to feel and doubt I ever will).
There is scare an inclusion (selection) which hasn’t strummed my search-for-meaning string (so to speak).
At completion: Which is in summary to affirm the compiler’s intent to select “eloquent” rhetoric. Check and double check.
2. An analysis of LDS rhetoric. The science of an LDS homiletics. A schema. A system of classification. Mechanisms of rhetoric. And so forth.
As an at best an-amateur learner (despite bachelor and masters degrees and despite my obsessive reading and reflection-oriented writing compulsion) I’m not academically qualified to critique. The classifications construction, delivery method, sources of persuasive power seem sensible and extensible to me. The selection illustrated such (and more). The inclusion of contributor’s remarks regarding their submission adds considerable heft to the analysis and development of an LDS rhetoric.
1. The contents of the rhetoric i.e. as one “hearing” and consuming in the first instance.
I was initially disappointed by the compilation, feeling as though the title and expressed intent (to illustrate LDS rhetoric through 2 centuries of evolution) was false marketing. The first speech is from 1831 not 1820 as suggested by the title (a marketing-driven obfuscation). The first speech isn’t a speech. The second seemed an illustration of ineffective persuasion … hellfire and damnation from an angry mother. Then …
Having read 55% (or ~30 of 55 speeches) of Latter-Day Eloquence I am impressed by the selections (variety, breadth, ability to illustrate, etc), the elucidation of each (by their contributor), and the (serendipitous?) relevance of their content. Regarding the latter, I think their relevance less serendipitous and more a function of never-resolved (perhaps never-resolvable) tensions which trouble particularly those who seek to be informed, alert, and thinking in the practice of their faith then as today (without regard to a moment in time).
Interestingly, I’ve previously encountered several essays / speeches, which is not at all surprising given their significance topically and historically. Eagerly would I read most of them repeatedly.
I’ve read / am reading so many good books. Headshakingly good. Addictive in a most positive sense. How might I make the content “mine?” Would that I could. Perhaps they are in the sense that meaning is in some sense a remembering tho’ surely it must be more as it becomes informed by mortality.
At 85% read: As one might anticipate from the title the selections move through time. The forward makes plain the movement through varied forums. And audiences. And topics. And genders. And…
Nevertheless I find myself experiencing viscerally a facet of variation I’d not anticipated. And I’m not certain how to articulate the facet or the emotion.
First an attempt at the facet. (The speaker’s) relationship in the seemingly universal quest for meaning (in life).
Next an attempt at emotion. Visceral. Strummed. Cellular-level resonance. Descriptive (of my vacillating relationship with the pursuit of truth / Truth (what I feel makes life meaningful for me). Inspirational (of a relationship I both long to feel and doubt I ever will).
There is scare an inclusion (selection) which hasn’t strummed my search-for-meaning string (so to speak).
At completion: Which is in summary to affirm the compiler’s intent to select “eloquent” rhetoric. Check and double check.
2. An analysis of LDS rhetoric. The science of an LDS homiletics. A schema. A system of classification. Mechanisms of rhetoric. And so forth.
As an at best an-amateur learner (despite bachelor and masters degrees and despite my obsessive reading and reflection-oriented writing compulsion) I’m not academically qualified to critique. The classifications construction, delivery method, sources of persuasive power seem sensible and extensible to me. The selection illustrated such (and more). The inclusion of contributor’s remarks regarding their submission adds considerable heft to the analysis and development of an LDS rhetoric.
Displaying 1 - 1 of 1 review