Newt Gingrich's Universe

A guide to the cosmos of Gingrich's heroes and influences

Monday, Dec. 25, 1995
    • ILLUSTRATION FOR TIME BY C.F. PAYNE

    Father Flanigan
    Gingrich says the Boys Town founder (played by Spencer Tracy in the 1938 film) provided "an alternative to the modern welfare state"

    Franklin Roosevelt
    Founder of the New Deal — and its corresponding Big Government. But also, says Gingrich, the greatest President of the 20th century

    Alexander Hamilton
    Co-author of the Federalist papers, champion of sound fiscal principles. "Almost all the Federalists were anti-inflationists," says Gingrich

    Peter Drucker
    The management guru, says Newt, "shaped my entire life," teaching him to "discipline, plan, think through, delegate, trust others to build a system"

    Isaak Asimov
    In his Foundation Trilogy , scientists use math to predict the future of an empire, proving to Gingrich that humans "hold their fate in their own hands"

    W. Edwards Deming
    Gingrich's book propagates Deming's "total quality management," which inspired the rethinking of assembly lines and decision making

    Allen Drury
    Novelist whose Advise and Consent sees the U.S. stun Russians with quirky moves. Inspired, Gingrich proposed rerecognizing Taiwan

    John Wayne
    Newt saw Sands of Iwo Jima four times in a day. He viewed the Duke's character, like his stepfather, as "aloof ... but doing something important"

    Abraham Lincoln
    Gingrich admires Lincoln's second Inaugural speech and his way with a hostile Congress. He took Lincoln's writings to his own swearing-in

    Toranaga
    The character from James Clavell's Shogun (played by Toshiro Mifune in the mini-series) is said to be Gingrich's ideal of the ruthless manipulator

    Arnold Toynbee
    His A Study of History examines the cycles of cultures — and how they responded to crises. "[He] can write about six or seven civilizations in a paragraph"

    Ataturk
    Turkey's President-innovator reinvented the country, changing even its alphabet. Says Gingrich: "[He] was regarded as the savior of the nation"

    The Tofflers
    Futurists whose The Third Wave ("a seminal work," says Newt) posits opportunity and upheaval in the info revolution

    Charles De Gaulle
    His creation of France's Fifth Republic from the ruins of the disastrous Fourth provided Gingrich an early example of the "bold renewal" of a nation

    Duke Wellington
    British general who helped Spain beat back Napoleon. "One of the great focused efforts of all time," says Newt. "A very weird experience"

    Martin Luther King
    Newt admires his sense of sacrifice: "What we're doing is hard. Then you think, What was he prepared to give?"