The Art of Public Speaking

About the book

J. Berg Esenwein and Dale Carnagey begin with the problem of confidence, then treat public speaking as a skill developed through informed practice. Chapters examine emphasis, pitch, pace, pauses, gesture, and clarity of utterance, connecting delivery to the meaning a speaker wants to convey. The discussion broadens into preparation, description, narration, argument, persuasion, vocabulary, and the demands of different occasions. Exercises and examples ask readers to do something with these distinctions rather than merely memorize rules. Published in 1915, the book preserves the rhetoric and social assumptions of its period, including its treatment of crowds and influence. Its central practical tension remains recognizable: effective delivery must be cultivated without becoming an empty performance detached from thought.

• Preparation and confidence
• Voice and expression
• Persuasion and audience

Why read it

The detailed attention to pace, emphasis, and structure makes the craft of spoken communication available for deliberate examination.

English manual by J. Berg Esenwein and Dale Carnagey, 1915