Newt Gingrich : The Rise and Fall of a Party Entrepreneur

Matthew N. Green

ISBN 10: 070063326X / ISBN 13: 9780700633265

Published by University Press Of Kansas Jul 2022, 2022

About this Item

Neuware - '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'.

Seller Inventory # 9780700633265

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Newt Gingrich : The Rise and Fall of a Party Entrepreneur
• Publisher: University Press Of Kansas Jul 2022
• Publication Date: 2022
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 070063326X
• ISBN 13: 9780700633265
• Binding: Buch
• Condition: Neu
• Dimensions: 238W x 163H x 33D millimeters 238 millimeters width by 163 millimeters height by 33 millimeters depth
• Weight: 616 grams

About this title

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.

About the Author

Matthew N. Green is professor of politics at The Catholic University of America and author of numerous books, including The Speaker of the House: A Study of Leadership and Underdog Politics: The Minority Party in the U.S. House of Representatives. Jeffrey Crouch is assistant professor of American politics at American University and author of The Presidential Pardon Power and coauthor of The Unitary Executive Theory: A Danger to Constitutional Government, both from Kansas.