Newt Gingrich & American Society

With brilliant simplicity, Mr. Gingrich's book tells us about his own road to understanding the rise and fall of civilizations. As recounted in To Renew America, his enlightenment on those historical processes began at an early age. In 1958, teenager Newt got a summer job as a gardener. The author's moment of truth came suddenly:

To this day, I can remember putting in the sod one warm sunny August afternoon and suddenly reaching the conclusion that civilizations can die (p. 18).

Gingrich masterly describes his growing feelings of great responsibility toward America and her people. Although he has claimed in a New Yorker interview that "I'm not a natural leader. ...I'm too intellectual, I'm too abstract, I think too much" (Bruck, p. 50), To Renew America demonstrates otherwise. The book provides Newt Ging

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s of Edwards Deming. CHALLENGE 2: America and the Third Wave Information Age Newt Gingrich drives home this point about the modern world: "one of the biggest problems people have in entering an era of change is nostalgia for the passing era" (p. 54). People are afraid of new things, overpowered by changes, the multitude of new technology, and onrush of information. The author is not unsympathetic, noting that "people feel a sense of quiet despair in watching an old era end" (p. 54). Still, he points out, this disorientation was true for every period of great change, such as the Agricultural Revolution and the Industrial Revolution. It is the responsibility of the great minds of society to lend the general population a helping hand; Gingrich cites the examples of H.G. Wells, Jules Verne and, now, in our "Third Wave Information Age," Ronald Reagan: "(He) made a career out of technology, moving from commercial radio (which did not exist when he was born) to movies and television, and then working for General Electric" (pp.54-55). We must not fear progress, Gingrich assures the reader, for the Third Wave Information Age will bring great joy and lifestyle improvements to most Americans. CHALLENGE 3: Creating American Jobs
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Approximate Word count = 2190
Approximate Pages = 9 (250 words per page)

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