Thomas Paine's "The American Crisis" was read aloud to the Continental Army on 23 December, 1776, three days before the battle of Trenton. The reason was to raise the Patriots' spirits and strength, as well as humiliate neutrals and loyalists to the cause. In fact, General George Washington found the first essay so impassioned that he also ordered that it be read to the soldiers at Valley Forge.
‘The Last Lecture’, this book written by Randy Pausch will be read by generations to come.
It is a story of Randy Pausch himself who was a professor at an University in Pittsburgh.
In that university there’s a kind of tradition where professors of that University are told to give a lecture and assume it as if it is the Last lecture of their life. But for Randy, he didn’t even need to assume this, because it was certainly the Last lecture of his life because he was suffering from terminal cancer and he didn’t had much time left.
So in a way the organization purpose of Last lecture supported Pausch’s purpose for delivering the lecture, where he gave some of the best life adivces and words of wisdom from his life experience.
