Divide. A virtual author event hosted by the bookstore in new york city. Welcome tonight, i saw comments, thank you so much. We work on this, we are very happy to have her tonight. Id like to share a little bit about the history. Its founded in 1927. Union squares active place, gradually going to 40 bookstores. So surrender. Now run by the owner, nancy, i want to thank all of you for your support. An update in the store two weeks on this. Tonight we are excited to have with us julian, celebrating release of the book, burning down the house. Julian is a stephenson 1941 professor of history and Public Affairs university and a political analyst. His most recent book, the history of the United States since 1974, coauthored by our moderator. The best book in congress. Awarded the New York Historical society, the Guggenheim Foundation in america. They will be joined by crews. A political, social and urban suburban history of the 20th century america. Focused on conflicts over race, religion, hes particularly interested in segregation and the civil rights movement. Religious nationalism and the making of this. Under one nation. One nation under god, how Corporate America is Christian America and recently published book. Honored as one of americas top young innovators in arts and sciences and top in history. Hes recently been named this english lecture by the organization of american historian and by john. Without further ado, kevin. Hi, there. Hey, everybody. I will chat here and pretend hundreds of people are lurking in the background. It is good to see you, as we just heard, we worked together on a book called fault lines covering the 1974 to the president and it was a big part of that so i am excited to dive into his career and your terrific book about it. A lot of people, a lot of people in the audience which is seen worldwide, probably no gingrich in his time as speaker. For a lot of Americans First on the scene in 1994 but of course he had two decades of political activism and was in congress before that. He started in congress, that first run for office, what he was like and all about, where he was coming from. Welcome to everyone and thank you for joining us. Its nice to see people from all over but he was quite a character. He had been an army brat, he grew up living in different parts of europe, family originally from out side harrisburg, pennsylvania. Working class area that was republican and he ended up in georgia. He went to emory and married his High School Math teacher. He then went where he got a phd in history and studied colonialism and policy. Then he moved to his first job, as we did. He never really liked academia, he wants to be the president of the college and head of the department and he runs for congress. He wanted a first republican in the area you studied, in a democratic area and hes part of the cohort of republicans who want to make this south using our modern color scheme. He selected in 1978, its his third try. He conduct a pretty vicious scheme and hidden his opponents, he said in a statement, if she wins, shes going to move to d. C. Her husband, her family will still live in the district so they can have their lives, he can have the business and gingrich jumped on it and said she wants to break up her family. Shes a radical and puts everything about moral values and it was a low blow. Hes in congress and we can talk about this but by 1980s, hes basically saying republicans need to do whatever is necessary to finally regain power after being a minority power from 1954 and he starts to do these outlandish and vicious things as part of his partisanship. He captures peoples attention. He does this conservative opportunity society, tell us about that. He organizes, not an organizer. He doesnt care about legislation or beyond committee. He wants to get his message out but he is strategic enough to organize, it is basically a carcass of like ended conservatives who thought he was a visionary and willing to do what he did. Another fellow republican was pretty eager to take on the democrats and call for civility and bipartisanship so he has this small cohort, numbers change over time. There were about 12 people and it will grow and they were like a team in the house. He has this idea and something hes going to introduce, and in some ways, they were soldiers for the reagan revolution. They are the most revolutionary bunch. They are saying we have to do things in ways that are out of the washington box if we are going to win. Only two things stand in our way, democrats and republicans . And the tension was in much of this. I write about, the House Minority leader. His guy named bob michael, hes get along kind of republic, is been there a while, he believes in working with democrats and believes in bipartisanship. Gingrich hated him in many ways as much as he hated oneill and speaker jim right. Around the Party Leadership instead of blocking him to get the message out, because about the media, right . Talk about using the media of the 1980s to get that message out. That is a big part of the book. This was really before the conservative media world we know exists. There is conservative talk rad radio, my story doesnt exist yet, theres no internet website yet like breitbart so he uses the mainstream media, newspapers, Cable Television as his tool so one of the stories we tell in the book, which i used to tell, kevin and i taught a class and i would always tell this story and i realize its probably a good book care. It is in 1984 and he and his group, the conservative opportunity society, they relate of the end of the day, anyone is allowed to go at the front of the house and make a speech. One minute speech, special order speeches. Theyre not reserved for people just with power and anyone can do it. They started going to the floor and they make these speeches and they started to say democrats dont support reagans work against communism and with the tv cameras rolling, cspan covering the proceedings, they named specific democrats like eddie boland in massachusetts say how do you respond to this . Whats your answer . The chamber was silent and if you were watching on cspan, it looks like the democrats have no response but what people couldnt see was no one was in the chamber. The rules only let you put the camera on the speaker so it was political theater at its finest or worst depending on your opinion. He got so mad the speaker of the house comes in and orders them to pan the chamber and show there was no one there. Even then, he turns it against him and says look, he breaks the rules. The party thats corrupt and then he gets even angrier and gives a blistering speech and says the lowest thing in his career. Then he has his words struck from the records. The story culminates the media meaning all three networks covered this. About what these young mavericks were doing and thats what he ultimately wanted and couldnt be more pleased. He gives what the democrats are about. Excellent. There are reagans sparring partner in the 80s. They were getting along after hours, he pulls all caps up. How do they impact the relationship reagan and oneill have. Theres a lot about. Much too far to the right in terms of economic social policy but its true that you think leaders in both parties, they balance the partisanship needs of governments. To make this tradeoff and that helps them understand when youre going too far. They didnt want to go so far they destroy the institutions and procedures and relationshi relationships, they were necessary to govern. Gingrich said throw all that out the window, he write memos, enough with stability. All it means is we are going to keep losing and democrats will keep having their power. He writes bob michael, you have to teach republicans to be more aggressive and confrontational. Cap negotiating with republicans and this is seen as mccarthy, thats how people talk about him but what happens in the 80s is interesting, gradually more and more republicans start listening to him. The more success he has, the more intrigued they are by him because they want to have power and they start to think about tradeoff which can be costly in american politics, do i want power so much i enter into alliances with people i know can be dangerous to the institution. The rise of the political strategist, what is that relationship like . Its very important. Its a book i hope everyone buys and enjoys but the heart of the book revolves around gingrich after some other conflicts with the democrats in 1987, oneill is retired and there is a new speaker in town, jim spent the majority leader hes from texas. He is an oldschool democrat. He wanted to focus on the theme that democrats were corrupt establish, that was his consistent theme, right now their stories about him in the press the questionable relationships which he sold this book that he published the speeches to groups that he spoke with and they were odd stories, they do not sit quite right, ingrid uses all of these and he whips washington up into a frenzy saying that jim wright is the most corrupt speaker ever in American History of missed behavior questionable behavior, thats the heart of the story and in 1988, another Party Establishment has a value, whos running for president , george h. W. Bush, reagans Vice President and in may his opponent, the governor of massachusetts is attacking bush and saying he is sleazy and part of the Reagan Administration i wrong contract, scandal after scandal and he called it the sleaze factor, his campaign was lee atwater, he was putting together a pretty Vicious Campaign that played on racial backlash and was very much a character assassination kind of campaign, in may when bush is struggling in the pool he convinces bushey to talk about jim right all the time and to take the story that really was on the fringes and stream into the campaign it was a bloodsport, character assassination was totally fine and it was about storytelling, gingrich was a historian who understood what storytelling was about and about professional wrestling and he thought politics should run accordingly. Absolutely, i want to back up a little bit, jim wright lives large in this and for people who dont follow the story, in the late 80s there was a House Speaker who is a liberal texan democrat is going to seemed like an acronym, tell us a little bit more about jim right and how we came into the story. 401922 a and grade board in 1933, he is very much a democrat who described who represented pretty much on board with the great society, he did have a spotty moment on civil rights issues, vote against this override act in 1964, he believe hes going to cost to him seat, and its one of the great mistakes of his career, by the 70s and 80s but he accepts most of Lyndon Johnson has put together and its hard to imagine that a Texas Democrat like that but that is who in the counterpoints of the mythology of the 1980s, he really thought reagan was pretty right wing and really taking steps that were dangerous to the fabric of the country and overseas he thought reagan supported the nicaraguan and it was really misguided in those opportunities to seek and that reagan didnt care about, he wanted someone wellliked personally in a democrat and he was removed and that hurt him, he was old school, the politics meaning he did not think about how some of the things he did might look in the eyes of the media and in the eyes of washington, he was not corrupt, he operated in the area of gray to milley politicians which could be used against them and actually ran. Of course the irony of Newt Gingrich while the ethics charges and in his own life, shall i say riddled with some of its own problems, talk about that, how is gingrichs own character issues service here . You have lots of character issues, not only did they have them in public, they were written in the media, to streams of problems that by the time he goes after jim right unknown problems, when his relationshi relationships, he has for example a pretty difficult divorce with his High School Math teacher and there was a story about it mother jones in 1984 which is trying to capture what new grange ridge was like personally and while his life was in the hospital for cancer surgery, he came to discuss divorce with her in an article they ripped out the papers which wasnt exactly true although he did have these discussions in the hospital and he was also known to be somebody who had an affair and this was known in washington and given he was part of the new conservative movement with the moral majority and he also had ethics problems, at the time he is going after speaker right for the charge of unethically selling his books to make money, he himself is having raise money from Interest Groups to promote a book that he wrote, in this story at the climatic moment of the story reframing jim right, he does not care, its a remarkable part of his psychology, when he bulldozers right through them and he just said its different, not the same and it keeps moving forward where you see with the democrats its much more damaging. Back to democratic character issues, finally not have a republican president in office and being able to run against a democratic president and bill clinton, how does gingrich make hay out of the early years of the clinton president. I think its a good connection with the two decades, in some way jim wright comes first and bill clinton come second, one of the most remarkable parts to move backwards was to realize how consistent and strategic gingrich was and how is going to attack the democrats, he doesnt poke enter focus that much on the girl under liberal conservatives but a lot of distressing government and a lot of anger in the electorate, he turns the watergate story against democrats, he keeps coming back because he thinks it will rise ignite and be his populist message in my first takedown, right becomes the embodiment in his mind of everything hes been saying since 1974, he draws a picture and creates a character and brings him down and then fastforward to after bill clinton is elected, he very much attempts to be the same with bill clinton, he made bill clinton the embodiment, not so much of corrupt democratic establishment and he moved on to morally enter corrupt establishment or two for left establishment, whatever he wanted to focus on, i think he tries to do the same, im sure his experience would embolden him to say we can move forward with impeachment and it might very well work. The big one is 1994, so talk about how that Campaign Takes shape, was it really a National Election and how big of a contract in america play, how is gingrich spin that . It is an important election and one of the things that gingrich does is he nationalizes the Midterm Campaign very effectively and he uses the things he learned in the 80s about why the media is useful to his advantage into the most famous element is that campaign for everyone who remembers or studied as a contract in america which is really something of a media gimmick and it was a set of promises that republicans were making and if they won, they would enact them, that was their first hundred days as a legislative body, is published as a carryout sheet and readers guide meant to be put on peoples refrigerators, he has a rally on the steps of the capital with either republicans to talk about the contract of america so you see him continuing to put together a conservative politics with a very media centered formal politics and the politics of placed great weight on the stories republicans were going to tell about their opponent, the language they were going to use and its successful, when republicans take over in 94, its a big deal in washington, is the First Time Since 1954 when eisenhower is in office at the democrats control both chambers of republicans control both chambers and its almost the second step of the reagan revolution, for conservatives its a big moment and finally thats when gingrich can bring all the tools and all the strategies and all the rhetorical weapons he had been working on since the 80s into the very top places of political power of speaker of the house. You mentioned language in the 1994 campaign and thats a really important thing as we talk about, talk about franks memo into language in a key mechanism of control, how does that influence 1994 because the Republican Party going forward. Thats a fascinating memo and i think you can still google it if you want to look at yourself. Before that the memo comes on 1990, gingrich language has been pretty remarkable, he tells democrats the leaning left, he basically accused them of unpatriotic behavior, jim wright was furious because he said later in life he may be a criminal, he did not say did shady things, he presented as someone who should go to jail and he really believed in using the language, one thing he wanted to shape how people saw the democrats in a particular way and by using language like that, the media could not resist covering what he had to say, he used to say that the media like indiana jones, i think he really believes that and words were the way that he gave them indiana jones, he gave them the adventure and the thrill and the memo comes out in 1990, gingrich can control something which he took over in 1984, it was a Political Action committee essentially and he rebuilt it and used it to distribute audiocassettes to republicans teaching them what to do and memos, this memo in 1990 was written in his head to republican candidates, if you want to speak like me these other words you need to use when talking about democrats, its a risk of words like trader, slime, radical, words that today you step back but it was very important and i think through gingrich and his use of those words, not as a bomb thrower politically but as a leader and legitimated the form we are talking about with your opponent and just look at a certain twitter feed, you will see one out in his style still resonat resonates. Gingrich legitimizes that language, he also legitimizes george h. W. Bush as well, people as rush limbaugh, whats the relationship with gingrich manipulations of media in the 90s when the balls at his peak and 96, what is gingrich relationship with the new conservative media. V