GINGRICH, NEWTON LEROY
With his election as Speaker of the U.S.House of Representatives in January 1995, Newton Leroy Gingrich (R-Ga.) became a powerful politician.
Assuming control of the first Republican majority in the House since 1952, Gingrich ruled that body during his first year with an authority not seen since the nineteenth century. The veteran congressman from Georgia used his new position to proclaim the arrival of an era in which his conservative agenda—including lower taxes,
decentralized government, and deep cuts in
social programs—would fundamentally alter
the fabric of U.S. society.
Since his arrival on the Washington, D.C.,
scene in 1979 as a brash and combative new
member of Congress, Gingrich has shaped and
guided Republican efforts on Capitol Hill. With
an affinity for both intellectual debate and back-
room deal making, this white-haired former pro-
fessor provided the vision, verve, and ideas that
built a Republican majority.His opponents, how-
ever, accuse him of a lack of concern for poor and
disadvantaged persons as well as an overly opti-
mistic view of technology and the free market.
Observers have described his actions in Congress
as alternately brilliant and petty, leaving many to
wonder whether he will be a passing footnote or
a pivotal chapter in U.S. political history.
Gingrich was born June 17, 1943, in Harris-
burg, Pennsylvania. His parents, Newton C.
McPherson and Kathleen Daugherty McPher-
son, were separated after only three days of mar-
riage. Gingrich’s mother remarried three years
after his birth, and her new husband, Robert
Bruce Gingrich, adopted Gingrich. Gingrich’s
adoptive father was a career army officer, and
the family moved frequently, living in Kansas,
France, Germany, and Fort Benning, Georgia.
In 1958, the 15-year-old Gingrich accompa-
nied his family on a trip to Verdun, France, site
of the bloodiest battle of WORLD WAR I.Deeply
moved by the story and scene of the battle, along
with a visit to rooms filled with bones of the
dead, Gingrich experienced an epiphany that he
later described as “the driving force which
pushed me into history and politics, and molded
my life.” The day after this visit, he told his fam-
ily that he would run for Congress because
politicians could prevent such senseless blood-
shed. Later, as both a student and a young pro-
fessor, he would tell others of his desire to
