Gingrich, Newt

Gingrich, (Newton Leroy) Newt

(1943–) U.S. representative, teacher, author; born in Harrisburg, Pa. Raised in a peripatetic military family, he received his Ph. D. from Tulane University (1971) and taught European history at West Georgia College. Elected to the U.S. House of Representatives (Rep., Ga.; 1979), he became Speaker of the House in 1995 with the promise of enacting a new conservative agenda. Characterized as cocky and brusque, but also as intelligent and effective, he described himself as a "conservative futurist." Window of Opportunity: A Blueprint for the Future (1984), written with his second wife, Marianne Gingrich, and David Drake, a science fiction writer, elucidated his philosophy.

The Cambridge Dictionary of American Biography, by John S. Bowman. Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1995. Reproduced with permission.