[x NYTimes Magazine, June 22, 2003]

QUESTIONS FOR NEWT GINGRICH
Speak, History
Interview by MICHAEL CROWLEY

Q A novel you were co-writer of that imagines a Confederate victory at Gettysburg is just out. How would the world be different today if the battle turned out that way?

Well, we don't believe that winning Gettysburg means the South wins the war automatically. It's a three-volume alternative history, and we're exploring it on a couple of levels. One is, Can a brilliant tactical leader from an agrarian society win a fast-enough victory to offset the weight of an industrial society? The second thing we're exploring is the nature of command.
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Is there any lesson from Gettysburg that you could apply to politics?

Have a command team that works well together. You could argue that the Bush-Cheney-Rove team is an example.

Is history the best place to find lessons about commanding and leading?

I would say history is the best place. But I also look at social anthropology, studies of animal behavior. There's a wonderful book by Frans de Waal called ''Chimpanzee Politics'' that I routinely recommend to people.

You can understand Washington by studying primates?

Listen, I tell Army officers they'll never see the Pentagon, the White House or the Congress the same after they read ''Chimpanzee Politics.''

Have you ever taken part in a Civil War re-enactment?

No. We're going to be up at Gettysburg next month. I'm probably going to dress as a reporter.

What does re-enacting as a reporter entail?

Just a fancy suit and shirt and tie. I had to pick either congressman or reporter, and I decided that reporters had more fun.

You were recently on Capitol Hill testifying about human longevity. What was that about? What is the secret to longevity?

Well, first of all, not dying. Just the fact that we're in a world where you have fewer people dying of infectious disease, of other kinds of problems -- people just live longer. I'm advocating that if you're going to have that many million people living to that age, you'd better rethink your whole system of health care, retirement.

Has your research taught you any specific health tips, like which vitamins we should take?

It's not complicated. Monitor what you take in and what you do. Keep your attitude positive. Optimists live longer -- that's really true statistically. Smiling is actually a healthy behavior.

When you testify before Congress, is it strange being on the other side of that dais? Do you find yourself impatient with long-winded questions?

No, no, no. An awful lot of these folks are my friends, and they treat me very, very well. I find partly because I was speaker and partly because they see me on Fox and partly because we have a book out, there's a seriousness that I'm very grateful for -- people approach me in a very serious way.

You're a historian. Is history repeating itself for George W. Bush, who is now threatened by a bad economy after a war in Iraq?

I think he clearly has to focus a lot on the question of what he's going to do about the economy. I think he has begun to focus on that.

So the ''tragedy'' of Bush senior won't recur as farce with Bush junior?

I'm not sure I want Karl Rove to know you even asked that question. I think George W. Bush understands the importance of focusing on domestic policy, and he is not likely to disengage.

Now that you're out of Congress, do you find yourself watching a lot of C-Span, wishing you could march onto the floor and tell someone off?

No. If I need to join the debate, I just go to Fox, and it seems to work out fine.

Hillary Clinton's own book has just come out. Do you feel competitive with her? Will you compare rankings on Amazon?

You almost slipped and said that both of our ''novels'' came out at the same time! Look, I'm not competitive with her. She is laying the base for a presidential campaign, and she wrote a book that attracted interest for obvious reasons. I wrote a historical novel that will attract a different kind of interest. Yesterday we were No. 1 on Amazon for fiction, so I'm very happy with how ''Gettysburg'' is doing in its own right. But it's a different market for a different reason.

Will you read her book?

No. I lived through that period.