Now retired, the nine-term Republican congressman from Georgia was on Maui to promote his historical novel, "Pearl Harbor: A Novel of December 8th."

"History is actually lived forward – it's studied backwards, but it's lived forward," Gingrich said. "There's no finer place to teach former lessons that relate to today than Pearl Harbor."

Written by Gingrich and historian William R. Forstchen, the book is the pair's ninth collaboration and the first in a series chronicling the war in the Pacific. More than just documenting the Dec. 7 attack, the authors alter the history books, speculating on the effect that a third wave of Japanese bombers might have had on the course of the war.