Perspectives

Historical perspective

In his “Evil Empire” speech, Ronald Reagan predicts the fall of totalitarianism and, implicitly, of the Soviet Union. His speech mirrors Sir Winston Churchill’s 1946 “Sinews of Peace” speech, which predicted the beginning of the Cold War with the Soviet Union. 

After Reagan’s “Evil Empire” speech, people’s op…

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Textual perspectives

Throughout his speech, Reagan makes several allusions to Sir Winston Churchill’s “Masters of Our Fate” speech and his “Why Should We Fear Our Future?” speech. Reagan also makes it clear that he admires Churchill, whom he considers a political genius. To have a better view of Churchill’s discourse style, it would be a good idea to look at his “Their Finest Hour” speech, which was delivered in June 1940 to the House of Commons of the United Kingdom. In “Their Finest Hour”, Churchill attempts to explain why the UK and France have lost to Germ…