Decius wrote:

Where the fuck has this guy been?

Why, he's been writing books, didn't you know?!

As Booklist explains:

As they did in their bestselling Civil War series, they rewrite history, providing alternative scenarios that parallel actual events.

See this recent review by Janet Maslin:

December 8, 1941, is not normally known as a date which will live in infamy. That phrase of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s usually refers to the preceding day, on which the American Naval fleet at Pearl Harbor was savaged by a surprise Japanese air raid. But “Pearl Harbor,” the war novel that is Newt Gingrich and William R. Forstchen’s latest foray into what they call “active history,” deliberately calls attention to the fact that Japan and Hawaii were on different sides of the International Date Line.

When the attack began, it was Dec. 7 at Pearl Harbor but Dec. 8 in Japan. The book is subtly subtitled “A Novel of December 8th” to signal its attention to the Japanese point of view. On the basis of that detail, you might expect a high level of fastidiousness from “Pearl Harbor.”

And you would be spectacularly wrong. Because you would find phrases like “to withdraw backward was impossible,” sounds like “wretching noises” to accompany vomiting, or constructions like “incredulous as it seemed, America had not reacted.” Although the book has two authors, it could have used a third assigned to cleanup patrol.

So perhaps you can see why he is praising Shlaes's revisionist history of the Depression. It's not so much true as it is truthy.

I like to imagine that this op-ed is a scheme to get his new book listed alongside the books of Sarkozy and Shlaes on sites like Amazon. While it hasn't happened yet for his book, he has managed to get Shlaes's book mentioned alongside Sarkozy's. On the page for Sarkozy's book, there is also another offer:

Buy The Private Life of Chairman Mao and get Testimony: France in the Twenty-first Century at an additional 5% off Amazon.com's everyday low price.

RE: Sarkozy's Lesson for America