Periscope

Throughout history, leaders have used speeches to inspire their followers and win new ones, to protest injustice and commemorate the past. A new book, "Speeches that Changed the World: The Stories and Transcripts of the Moments That Made History," compiled by British historian Simon Sebag Montefiore, brings together some of the most momentous, beginning with the Ten Commandments given by God to Moses on Mount Sinai, and Jesus' Sermon on the Mount. Each speech is prefaced with a biography of the speaker and the story of its significance. There is plenty of stirring rhetoric, from Abraham Lincoln's somber Gettysburg Address to Sir Winston Churchill's rousing speech honoring Royal Air Force pilots during 1940's Battle of Britain, in which he declared: "Never ... was so much owed by so many to so few." There is wisdom, particularly in Elie Wiesel's millennium oration on "The perils of indifference," and controversy, too: "Women's education is almost more important than the education of men and boys," declaimed Indira Gandhi in 1974.

Montefiore doesn't steer clear of oratory that exemplifies evil and folly, like Hitler's speeches, which reveal his virtuosity as a political agitator as well as his cynical lies and camp posturing. And the book also makes clear that the passage of time has highlighted the self-interest of many powerful speakers. Though Lenin declared, 'Power to the Soviets!' in 1917, referring to the working people and peasants, history proved that he only ever meant power to be for himself and his party oligarchs. From deeply flawed diatribes to lofty disquisitions, each speech is a compelling, colorful window on the past.

Tara Pepper

Spike Lee just opened a new thriller, "Inside Man." He spoke with Nicki Gostin.

Jodie Foster looks very glam in this movie.

Spike Lee: I remember the first day she showed up in costume. The first thing out of my mouth was "Damn!" because her legs are great, and I don't remember ever seeing her legs in a film before. I'm glad "Inside Man" is the debut of Jodie Foster's legs.