In March 1982, Gingrich wrote a letter to all of his fellow Republicans urging them to develop a better, more coordinated message to use in front of the media. ... After reviewing twelve Sunday television interview shows, Gingrich came away impressed by how much attention congressional Democrats devoted to perfecting and repeating their message. Republicans were far less polished, Gingrich thought. "A political party which focuses on the management and allocation of campaign resources, and neglects political strategy, is a party that loses," Gingrich warned. "Two minutes on the evening news is watched by more people, believed by more of them, and, politically has a greater multiplier effect than paid political advertising." Gingrich implored House Republicans to pay more attention to their media appearances. "Republicans tend to have blurred and unfocused opening statements while Democrats tend to focus effectively and persuasively."

It all came down to this: for Republicans to dislodge House Democrats from power, they would have to be ruthless. Democrats didn't play fair, Gingrich believed. He said that incumbents rigged elections through gerrymandering and campaign money; they relied on arcane procedures, such as imposing rules that prevented floor amendments to bills, that disempowered the minority party; and they solidified their public support through corrupt pork-barrel spending and favors for business leaders in their districts. "There's a sense that this (the Capitol) is a neighborhood designed to secure congressmen's feelings. That's very, very dangerous," according to the Georgian. If the GOP adhered to the old rules of politics by being civil and bipartisan, it would simply allow the Democrats to keep winning.

The details of how Newt Gingrich initiated the current destructive and hyper-partisan state of politics in the US feels very timely. Trump is the ultimate expression of the "end justifies the means" scorched-earth approach to politics that we now suffer with. The book is very readable.

Another edifying and well researched book that makes me wonder whether this country has any chance of righting itself.

As part of my American Politics course in university, I have wanted to learn more about the Republican Party, and this book goes a long way to explaining why it is the partisan beast it is today. Here, we see Newt's rise to Republican stardom and how he created a tornado of allegations whilst ignoring the own claims made against his own party.


My only real complaint about it is that it puts too much detail on the allegations against Wright at the expense of the path that the Republicans took after Newt's rise, which only gets a page or so.

My Youtube review: https://youtu.be/kV-u5Nt2e_Y

The author's coverage of the late-1980s political showdown between Republican Minority Whip Newt Gingrich and Democratic Speaker of the House Jim Wright was tense, thorough, and surprisingly balanced. I'm no fan of Gingrich or his new-at-the-time tactics as described in this book, but there also does seem to have been a lot wrong with the Democrat-led House then too, and I couldn't help but slightly admire the political maneuvering that the GOP put into play to gain some clout, as nasty as the long-term consequences may have been.

The author's assertion that things could have gone a different way, towards a less polarized political climate, if not for Gingrich's influence... is plausible, but not fully substantiated in this book. Given the broadening media spotlight looking for sensational stories and an American public more in tune to political scandals and corruption, real or perceived, following Nixon's downfall (two factors that Zelizer explores in detail), it seems that U.S. politics was already fertile ground for increased partisan battles, and that if Gingrich and his camp hadn't begun the shift then someone else would have soon enough. The author also didn't give quite enough info to convince me that Gingrich pretty much single-handedly "burned down the house" as he asserts; he could be right, but I have a lot of follow-up questions on this. I learned quite a bit from the book, but much of that I'll take with a grain of salt, and what I enjoyed most about reading it was the inside look into one political drama playing out in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Unfortunately, towards the end of the book, the author pretty drastically shifts from simply describing Gingrich's actions and loosely speculating about his motives, to instead basically writing as if he's reading Gingrich's mind. Up until this point, Gingrich and Wright were both portrayed as somewhat shady characters who might stand for something or might actually just be grappling for more political power, but in the end the author suddenly throws his unequivocal support behind Wright, basically totally vindicating Wright and condemning Gingrich as the villain who will go down in infamy for ruining U.S. politics. Sure, it was pretty clear from the start who the author's favorites were, and sure, a lot of the quotations mentioned actually were straight out of Gingrich's mouth, but I wish the author had left it a bit more open for thought than this, since at least as he tells the story, it's not quite as clear-cut as he makes it out to be by the last chapter. Instead, the rhetoric at the end of the book, as some other reviewers have pointed out, starts to feel like it has a touch of the very sort of partisan warfare that the author is lamenting.

Those relatively minor gripes aside, the central story was well-written, well-researched, and altogether captivating, and I enjoyed reading it.

This book just made me angry. Republicans have been playing by a different rule book my entire life and Democrats can't seem to figure out the game. It's amazing to me that we have progressed at all since the 80s given how incompetent the liberal wing of our government is when competing against the devious machinations of people like Gingrich.

This book was a pleasure to read, although I slogged through the middle portion and found it sometimes tough to keep track of all the members of Congress who were introduced. It's especially pertinent now, given the past five years, and I would advise reading this to anyone my age or younger who wants to understand the origins of the political environment we find ourselves in today. The Vietnam War may have given rise to the harsh political divides (also a debatable topic), but Gingrich took those divides beyond their natural capacities. There's a great deal to be learned from the political turmoil covered by the book for political junkies, and I wish the author had gone further in depth on Gingrich's personality towards the latter half (though I don't know if this was a possibility). I also would absolutely love an updated final chapter after the last four years in reflection of all that has happened.

Some lessons that I want to get down even though I think they're pretty clear:
1. Control the narrative and you will control the process
2. If people see enough smoke, they'll presume without evidence that there's a fire
3. The rules of any game can always be twisted in your favor
4. Unified, simple messages can mean nothing and still succeed
5. New mediums/media merely serve as fresh weapons in an old battle - learning to wield them provides unchecked opportunity. Failure to use them will place you at extreme disadvantage
6. People/parties in power always bear the public's blame
7. Guilt and conviction are never the same
8. You cannot fight with both hands tied behind your back
9. Even docile sharks have a taste for blood

I've been looking forward to reading this book because I love non-fiction modern history. The beginning and latter half were 5 stars but the middle seemed to drag out for too long and lose my attention- which doesn't happen that often when I'm balls-deep in a book like this.