Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, July 1, 1995 TAG: 9507030055
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
Born in controversy over a $4.5 million advance, which the author regretfully declined, the book is not exactly a beach read.
It is more of a primer on the power of provocative thinking, a look into the active brain of a political figure credited with reinvigorating both the speakership and the Republican Party.
Much of the book is drawn from lectures and speeches Gingrich has given in his political role and to students in his ``Renewing American Civilization'' course. His familiar gurus - the ``Future Shock'' Tofflers, management expert Edwards Deming and conservative author Marvin Olasky - are in evidence, as are his familiar causes - zoos, Habitat for Humanity, Earning for Learning.
Gingrich reflects briefly on the 1994 elections and the GOP congressional takeover. He first realized he would be speaker nearly two months before the election, he says, and initially drafted a biting speech to deliver on his ascension.
But Gingrich says a congressman's ``powerful sermonette on the spirit of reconciliation'' at a church service that morning so moved him that he rewrote his remarks even as the House was voting to elect him.``I tried to rise to the occasion,'' he writes, ``wanting very much to reach out to the whole House.''
Gingrich depicts himself as a precocious adolescent in an account of several formative experiences.
When his military dad was stationed in France, he says, sky-high French inflation taught him that ``when a government cheats its own people by inflating the currency rather than facing tough political decisions, it is inviting trouble.'' He was 13.
At 14, as he watched from neighboring Germany, a ``bold renewal of French life'' engineered by Charles de Gaulle made ``an indelible impression.''The lesson he took away: ``Successful leaders must be prepared to gamble everything.''
During the same period he and his family visited Verdun, the World War I battlefield. A couple of months later, laying sod and reflecting on the visit, he remembers ``suddenly reaching the conclusion that civilizations can die.''
The teen-ager abandoned his ambitions to be a zoo director or paleontologist and immediately began studying history and politics. He had decided to ``dedicate my life to understanding what it takes for a free people to survive and to helping my country and the cause of freedom.''
On the eight-day Atlantic crossing homeward, Gingrich says he reconsidered the idea of such difficult work:
``My conclusion was that there was no moral choice except to immerse myself in the process of learning how to lead and how to be effective.''
by CNB