Gingrich Book Lists ‘Six Challenges’ Aimed at Transforming the Nation : Speaker: ‘To Renew America’ urges public to combat the ‘moral decay from within.’ It offers telling insights into his background and views.

With evangelical fervor, House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) declares in a newly published book that America faces “moral decay from within,” but he expresses confidence that the nation can avert a collapse if Americans rise to meet his “six challenges.”

In “To Renew America,” now being shipped to bookstores, Gingrich uses almost apocalyptic language to describe the “substantial dangers that could undermine our civilization, weaken our country and bring misery into our lives.”

But while delivering a harsh indictment of big government and the status quo, Gingrich balances such rhetoric with his trademark upbeat vision of national transformation.

“If we do our job right, the 21st Century could be an age of freedom, an age of exploration, an age of discovery, an age of prosperity,” he writes.

After six high-profile months as Speaker of the first Republican-controlled House in 40 years, Gingrich’s agenda for change contains few surprises.

But the 249-page book does offer telling insights into the background and the sometimes quirky--but always exuberant--mind of a man who has dominated the political arena all year.

For instance, even as Gingrich knocks best-selling author Michael Crichton for works that he calls “just standard alarmist environmentalism in which humans are forever messing up nature,” the onetime aspiring zookeeper wonders: “Why not aspire to build a real Jurassic Park? (It may not be at all impossible, you know.) Wouldn’t that be one of the most spectacular accomplishments of human history? What if we can bring back extinct species?”

Gingrich was originally slated to receive a $4.5-million advance for the book, but he eventually declined the lump-sum payment after critics questioned the circumstances under which it was negotiated and accused him of exploiting his public office to reap a personal profit.

“To Renew America” is the second major GOP political tract to hit the bookstores this summer. It was preceded by “The Freedom Revolution,” written by another college professor-turned-politician: Rep. Dick Armey of Texas, now Gingrich’s comrade-in-arms as the House majority leader.

Gingrich’s “six challenges” are to:

* “Re-establish a legitimate moral-cultural standard” by “teaching Americans about America and teaching immigrants how to become Americans.” He wants “a quick and efficient method” of deporting those who have entered the country illegally--in “hours or days--not months or years. . . .” And he opposes “knowingly” giving welfare or any government assistance, other than emergency medical care, to undocumented workers.

* “Accelerate America’s entry into the Third Wave Information Age.” (He describes the first two “waves” as the Agricultural Revolution and the Industrial Revolution.)

* “Rethink all the things that inhibit our ability to compete” economically, such as over-regulation, excessive litigation, burdensome taxes, the deterioration of education and the proliferation of government bureaucracy.

* “Replace the welfare state with an opportunity society.” He blames “contemporary liberals” for “today’s redistribution ethic that subsidizes idleness.” Reforming the welfare state is “the greatest moral imperative we face,” he writes.

* Return power to the states and localities and ultimately to the citizens. “We want to leave choices and resources in the hands of individuals and let them decide if they prefer government, the profit-making sector, the nonprofit sector, or even no solution at all to their problems,” Gingrich says. And except for federal enforcement of “basic civil and voting rights,” he adds, “it is unnecessary to have a Washington bureaucracy overseeing the actions of honestly elected local officials.”

* Balance the federal budget.

In an otherwise policy-oriented book, Gingrich cites several epiphanies that shaped his world view.

Having lived in France and Germany as a teen-ager, Gingrich recalls his “indelible impression” of how “a decaying [French] government with a weak currency can quickly undermine people’s faith in its political leadership.”

He writes: “I recognized that nations can undermine themselves through inadequate policies and moral collapse. Weak leadership and a refusal to confront problems rapidly lead to national decay.”

Another life-changing moment occurred during an Easter visit to the French battlefield of Verdun, which Gingrich says “reminded [me] of the terrible ability of humans to cause pain to one another. . . .”

Until then, young Gingrich’s interest in politics was riveted on getting a zoo for his hometown of Harrisburg, Pa. But as he sailed home from Europe, he said, he decided “there was no moral choice except to immerse myself in the process of learning how to lead and how to be effective.”

In an otherwise somber treatment of topics such as the federal deficit and health care, Gingrich occasionally injects a personal note.

While decrying the psychology of deficit spending, for instance, he mentions his own daughters, both of whom, he writes, “went through what they called ‘credit-card hell.’ ”

Talking about health care, he calls on physicians to be more accountable to their “customers” and recalls with anger how his wife, Marianne, developed a thyroid ailment last year but was spurned by specialists from whom she sought advice.

“She called several specialists and asked what tests they would recommend and how much they would cost. None of them would tell her anything except that they would be glad to schedule her for an appointment,” Gingrich writes, adding: “. . . If doctors and hospitals keep insisting on telling patients very little, they are going to end up in a Canadian-style government bureaucracy. If they want to retain their freedom, they are going to have to share information with their patients.”

Discussing drug abuse, Gingrich acknowledges: “I have had personal experience with drug addiction among family members, students and friends. The human cost is far too great for us to continue a halfhearted, defeatist approach.”

Gingrich wants to see tougher treatment of prisoners, including a 48-hour work week with another 12 hours devoted to academic studies. He also wants to “eliminate all weight and muscle-building rooms and break down the cult of macho behavior in prison.”

Among Gingrich’s other targets in the book are the “elite media,” which he says are “so cynical and so out of touch with average Americans. . . .”

The Speaker is equally hard on academia, calling higher education “out of control,” with campuses “run for the benefit of the faculty, not the students.” He urges “a thorough review of higher education by outsiders to determine how America can best organize learning for adults.”