Newt Gingrich - (Congressional Leaders) by Matthew N Green & Jeffrey Crouch (Hardcover)

About the Book

"From the moment he entered politics, Newt Gingrich was laser-focused on one goal: to regain control of the House of Representatives and, as a result, to facilitate a conservative shift in American society. To achieve this goal he overturned long-held Congressional norms. In a June 1978 speech, he said that what the Republicans needed was not "another generation of cautious, prudent, careful, bland, irrelevant, quasi-leaders" but individuals "willing to take risks, willing to stand up in a slug fest and match it out with their opponent." That was precisely what Gingrich did, beginning with his election in 1978. He finally achieved his goal with the 1994 midterm elections, propelled by his Contract with America, that ended forty years of Democratic control of the House. But only five years later Gingrich found himself forced to resign, abruptly ending his tenure in politics after twenty years. As a polarizing and consequential figure, Gingrich has been the subject of extensive discussion, but the efforts to make sense of his time in office have resulted in conflicting accounts. Political scientists Matthew Green and Jeffrey Crouch have mined the archives and argue in their contribution to the Congressional Leaders series that Gingrich is best understood as a party entrepreneur. Congressional entrepreneurs tend to be either procedural entrepreneurs, who bring about institutional reform and rule changes, or legislative entrepreneurs, who introduce bills and guide them to enactment. Gingrich was a third type: a party entrepreneur-someone who works to achieve their party's collective goals. This perspective helps to make sense of someone who was creative and successful in gaining power but not effective in using and sustaining it. Newt Gingrich is a comprehensive look at Gingrich's time in Congress and offers a new perspective on one of the most significant and controversial American politicians"--

Book Synopsis

Newt Gingrich is one of the most polarizing and consequential figures in US politics. First elected to the House of Representatives in 1978, he rose from a minority party backbencher to become the first Republican Speaker of the House in forty years. Though much has been written about Gingrich, accounts of his time in Congress are incomplete and often skewed.

In their book Newt Gingrich: The Rise and Fall of a Party Entrepreneur, political scientists Matthew N. Green and Jeffrey Crouch draw from newly uncovered archival material, original interviews, and other data to provide a fresh and insightful look at Gingrich's entire congressional career. Green and Crouch argue that Gingrich is best understood as a "party entrepreneur," someone who works primarily to achieve their congressional party's collective goals. From the moment he entered Congress, Gingrich was laser-focused on achieving two party-related objectives--a Republican majority in the House and a more conservative society--as well as greater influence for himself.

Using a conceptual framework taken from theories of military strategy, the authors explain how Gingrich initially struggled because of a mismatch between his lofty goals and the resources available to him. After years of patiently cultivating allies, tempering his immediate objectives, and waiting for favorable circumstances to emerge, Gingrich finally claimed victory in 1994, with Republicans winning control of the House and electing Gingrich as Speaker. Yet while Gingrich had been creative, patient, and ultimately successful at gaining power for himself and his party, he proved ineffective at balancing his goals with the demands of the Speakership, and he resigned from Congress just four years later.

Newt Gingrich: The Rise and Fall of a Party Entrepreneur, the latest contribution to the Congressional Leaders series, sheds new light on a historically important congressional leader whose complicated legacy is still debated today by scholars, journalists, and politicians.

Review Quotes

"A richly researched, insightful, and evenhanded account of Newt Gingrich's long drive to win and then maintain a majority for House Republicans."--Journal of Southern History

"This book uses data and stories to construct an argument that is accessible to people not only in the academy but also to all those who enjoy a good political book. It is the best of what journalists, historians, and political scientists do in mixing archival research, interviews, and data analysis."--Perspectives on Politics

"Readers will find both a detailed summary of Gingrich's House Career and a new lens to view the work of the United States Congress."--Congress & the Presidency

"This excellent book unpacks Newt Gingrich as a politician and strategist and is an important contribution to the literature on congressional leadership. Highly recommended."--Choice

"Green and Crouch use the analytical tools of political science to understand one of the most controversial--and increasingly representative--party entrepreneurs of modern times, Newt Gingrich. A thoughtful account of the former Speaker of the House."--Julian E. Zelizer, professor of political history, Princeton University, and author of Burning Down the House: Newt Gingrich, the Fall of a Speaker, and the Rise of the New Republican Party

"Green and Crouch have produced a superb account of Newt Gingrich's political career. With deep research, crisp writing, and fair-minded analysis, this book is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand American political parties and congressional leadership."--John J. Pitney Jr., author of After Reagan: Bush, Dukakis, and the 1988 Election

"Matthew N. Green and Jeffrey Crouch's thoroughly researched, regularly insightful, and highly informative book will likely become, as it should, the definitive assessment of Newt Gingrich's time in Congress. His role in seizing and using then-emerging trends in partisanship and polarization continues in Congress today and shapes American politics more broadly. Green and Crouch's careful extension of the legislative entrepreneurship model to the partisan arena is well-considered and highly explanatory in contextualizing and explaining the former Speaker's career in the House."--Douglas Koopman, professor of politics, Calvin University