Sentence:  As a young man, Lytton Strachey admired Hastings and wrote a long thesis on him, while dismissing Burke as ‘an ignorant enthusiast'. What strikes me on rereading those great <WSD>philippics</WSD> is, on the contrary, their exactness and perceptiveness. 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  Any tirade or declamation full of bitter condemnation.