Customer Reviews

THE GENTLEMAN FROM GEORGIA

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2 star:		(3)
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Followers of the career of Newt Gingrich will be disappointed by this biography. The book is at its best in describing the ins and outs of the local elections Newt fought and won in Georgia, with a lot of background information on each election. But the sections on Newt's Washington career are culled mostly from newspaper articles and interviews with some of the players in the Gingrich era that--surprisingly--add few insights into the nature and character of Gingrich. Steely's prose is often wooden and the numerous changes of tense are jarring. The text in fact at times reads more like a first draft manuscript than a polished biography. Gingrich is clearly the most influential Republican figure of the 1990's and political history demands a sweeping documentation of his career. We'll just have to wait for one.

Newt Gingrich is one of the more remarkable and misunderstood statemen in the history of the American Republic. He embodies in one man a genius for ideas and a genius for action.

The latter is not entirely belied by his fall from the pinnicle of power. In his short years as Speaker he accomplished much. He ended welfare as an entitlement. He turned chronic deficits into lasting surpluses. The man who was nominally in charge of the United States, Bill Clinton, is a cipher by comparison. History will show that the most influential politician of the 1990s was Speaker Gingrich.

He was hated by his enemies, whose power he had taken away. He was distrusted by his friends, to whom he gave power. That latter fact is the irony of Gingrich's triumph. Those who owed Gingrich everything in the end drove him from elected politics.

Nevertheless it may be comforting that the story of Newt Gingrich is not over yet. He continues in the private sector to do what he does so well, to drive ideas and foster change. If George W. Bush rises to the Presidency, he could do far worse than to offer the former Speaker a cabinet post. That certainly would make for an excellent second volume.

--Mark R. Whittington http://curmudgeons.blogspot.com/

Followers of the career of Newt Gingrich will be disappointed by this biography. The book is at its best in describing the ins and outs of the local elections Newt fought and won in Georgia, with a lot of background information on each election. But the sections on Newt's Washington career are culled mostly from newspaper articles and interviews with some of the players in the Gingrich era that--surprisingly--add few insights into the nature and character of Gingrich. Steely's prose is often wooden and the numerous changes of tense are jarring. The text in fact at times reads more like a first draft manuscript than a polished biography. Gingrich is clearly the most influential Republican figure of the 1990's and political history demands a sweeping documentation of his career. We'll just have to wait for one.

Let us face the facts. Mr. Gingrich is a hypocrite. While talking about how awful President Clinton was, Mr. Gingrich was fooling around behind his wife's back. None of this is included in this book so I am left to wonder what else is missing. A white wash of a book. I give it 2 stars for effort.

In the Gentlemen from Georgia: The Biography of Newt Gingrich, University of West Georgia History professor Mel Steely profiles one of the most remarkable individuals to ever to serve the American public from Capital Hill.

I have known Mel Steely for over two decades as a friend, professor, Congressional intern, Campaign Aid & mentor. This book is something that many, including myself, have long wanted to see released.

Mel Steely, as Newt's most loyal and trusted aid, as well as an accomplished historian in his own right, is uniquely qualified to profile Newt Gingrich. Steely comments on the public Newt, the one that millions of Americans know from the portrayals of Dan Rather C-SPAN & CNN as well as the Newt that was rarely seen in public.

This story is compelling at so many levels. Newt was the only GOP candidate in the terrible GOP election year of Watergate to nearly knock off a 32 year incumbent Democratic. Later as a backbencher Newt earned a name for himself on C-SPAN as the intellectual hard charger to a bloated & corrupt Democratic Party with institutionalized power. Several times Newt nearly escaped political disaster with razor thin re-election margins both in the GOP Primary and the General election and at other times he was the most popular politician in Georgia. He quarterbacked the Contract with America and took back the House after 40 years of liberal Democratic control.

Uncluttered with the inside the beltway mentality that so often is the source for boiler plate political bios, this story is compelling because it was written by someone who really knows the man. Steely brings an academic objectivity combined with a personal experience that no other author could ever hope to match.

From the Social(ist) Science building on the University of West Georgia campus where Mel Steely has lectured students for the last quarter century, he became a lightning rod for the radical campus left. They could never accept that a young brash college professor of humble beginnings could become the leader of the Conservative movement in the United States and third in line to the U.S. President. In this hostile environment Mel served his students as well as his country and found for himself a most unique vantage point for the chronicle he was so uniquely suited to write.

Perhaps, one day, they may even rename that Social(ist) Science Building to Gingrich Hall in honor of the University's most famous professor, who later became a professor to all American people.

It would be a fitting commentary to the Psychology Department hippie commune and the Political Science true believers of Karl Marx to have to conduct their classes in such an environment.

This is a great book about a great man. I highly recommend it to anyone interested interested in government and the renewal of the Republican Party. I would even go so far to say it ought to be required reading for Political Science Students @ the University of West Georgia.

BigEd@SCOUTER.com