Newt Gingrich served 20 years as a member of Congress, and was speaker of the House of Representatives from 1995–99. He is currently a political analyst for Fox News Channel. His official Web site is www.newt.org.

It is impossible for me to pick five all-time favorite books, because there are simply too many possibilities. I will list five favorite books that I would recommend to anyone interested in good reading:

Shogun by James Clavell (Bantam Doubleday, $15). A brilliant introduction to medieval Japan, the process of modernization, cross-cultural communications, the nature of being alien (as seen through both Japanese and English eyes), and a tremendous study of power and intrigue. One of the best and most useful books I have read.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

Naturalist by Edward Osborne Wilson (Island Press, $25). A terrific introduction to how a young person can fall in love with nature and end up as one of the world’s leading biologists.

The Effective Executive by Peter Drucker (HarperCollins, $13). Based on lectures Drucker gave to the Kennedy administration about being effective. It introduced me to George Catlette Marshall, Alfred Sloan, and Theodore Vail back in 1969 and changed my life by orienting me towards effectiveness and away from either efficiency or effort as measurements of activity.

The Unvanquished by Howard Fast (Sharpe M.E. Inc., $25). One of the finest novels of the American Revolution and a vivid portrait of the courage, discipline, and patience it took for Washington to create first an army and then a country.

Killer Angels by Michael Shaara (Random House, $20). Simply the best military novel about the Civil War (thus sidestepping any comparison with Gone With the Wind). It captures the poignant portrayal of Gettysburg as seen from both sides; worth reading for its vivid introduction of Joshua Chamberlain, the most idealistic icon of the Union side.

To continue reading this article...
Continue reading this article and get limited website access each month.
Get unlimited website access, exclusive newsletters plus much more.
Cancel or pause at any time.
Already a subscriber to The Week?
Not sure which email you used for your subscription? Contact us