An unprecedented shift in American political power is underway. In the last decade of the 20th century, there is a leader whose program is debated in town halls and union halls across America, whose first name has become a household word, who addresses the nation in televised speeches from his office, and whose offhand remarks make headlines across the country. He resides not in the Oval Office but at the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue: in the Office of the Speaker of the House of Representatives. Newt Gingrich, who studied and planned and labored so long to create a new conservative majority, has become what Time magazine calls “the virtual president” and “the preeminent political leader in America.”

But what road led him to this extraordinary destination? The Washington press corps once dismissed him as a flaky bomb-thrower, the “congressman from Outer Space,” fascinated with wave theories and addicted to partisan mudslinging. Today, that same corps scrambles to make sense of Newt Gingrich, triumphant leader of a new conservative majority.

With Newt! Leader of the Second American Revolution Dick Williams provides the first up-close, thoughtful study of the man and the ideas that have made this revolution. Their first encounter came in 1976 when Newt, a fresh-faced college professor struggling to win election to Congress, paid a visit to Dick, news director of an Atlanta TV station. In the two decades since, Dick Williams has become one of the South’s most respected conservative commentators, chronicling the building Republican revolution now overtaking American politics. Along the way he interviewed Newt hundreds of times and watched the development of a fresh and promising new political philosophy.

From Gingrich’s beginnings as a popular but quirky professor, to his early campaign defeats, to his growing influence as a new breed congressional conservative, to his battles with the Democratic leadership and his own Republican president, to the birth and stunning success of the Contract With America, Newt! Leader of the Second American Revolution takes you behind the scenes of one of the most dramatic political stories of our time.

Including excerpts from Newt’s now-famous college lecture series and other important speeches, Dick Williams gives readers a rare, balanced look at the history of a modern political revolution . . . and where it may lead us next.

For Newt, ideas matter, and education is forever. These are his ideas. For fans and foes alike, the education begins here.