Veeps

by Bill Kelter, Wayne Shellabarger (Artist)

It's a tired but true clich� that every American Vice President is just a heartbeat away from the most powerful job in the world -- a job they've often never really interviewed for. Who are these people? Over more than 200 years, the American voters have sent a platoon of rogues, cowards, drunks, featherweights, doddering geriatrics, bigots, and atrocious spellers to Washington D.C. to sit one bullet, cerebral hemorrhage, or case of pneumonia away from the highest office in the land. Veeps tells the sordid, head-scratching, perversely-entertaining stories of these men we've chosen to ride shotgun in the biggest rig in democracy, without ever seriously considering the possibility that they might have to take the wheel.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Humor, Politics, American History, Americana

296 pages, Hardcover

First published October 29, 2008

Reviews

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book gave me mood swings. If you would have snuck up on me, during my reading, you might have found me chuckling at the inanity of veep after veep who was woefully unqualified to hold any government position, let alone be one heartbeat away from the presidency.

Or you might have found me weeping at...well, pretty much the same thing.

You might have even have found me in shock over how Sarah Palin probably WOULDN'T have been the Worst Vice-President Of All Time.

Or you might have found me saddened over how often both the American presidency and vice-presidency go to people who, politically speaking, weren't savvy enough to get out of the way in time.

But, mostly, if you snuck up on me while I was reading this, you'd have found me curious as to why you were in my bedroom, or my bathroom.

[Jeffrey · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have to admit if it wasn't published by TopShelf, I may never have picked this book up. I've never really been interested in politics, and the prospect of Palin being VP certainly didn't encourage me to want to learn more about others who had held the post.
I finally started reading this book, and I LOVE it. It's informative - mixing some interesting trivia with history, as well as inadvertently teaching more about the US government and its processes than I would've expected. It's also very funny, very sharp, very nicely illustrated, very much worth reading.
Highly recommended for anyone interested in a political career, as well as for anyone who really hate politics and politicians.

[Dan · Rating 2 out of 5]

I would have rated this higher if it weren't marketed as a humor book. It's condescending rather than funny. The title made me laugh, as did one line from the authors. The quotations of the veeps and their contemporaries were hysterical, though. If it had been marketed as a trivia book with funny quotes, it would have worked better.

[Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting book for the history geek. Only problem was the obvious political views of the authors kept coming through.

[Jesse Bradstreet · Rating 4 out of 5]

7/10

A fun, quick read which goes through a lot of amusing (yet simultaneously revealing) neglected anecdotes of that most neglected part of American history: the Vice Presidency. The author gets a bit politically biased towards the end, so if you're a Republican or right-leaning independent, you may cringe a bit at his appraisals of Quayle and Cheney (I thought they were pretty accurate, though he wasn't harsh enough on Gore...)

[HopefulDaffodil · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed it. I wouldn't use this as a serious historical resource, but it's pretty good as a starting point for learning about American VPs. It sort of reminds me of a gossip rag, which makes it pretty entertaining, but it does tend to be pretty mean-spirited towards a lot of the VPs. I can only imagine what they'd say about Biden, Pence and Harris...

[Jj · Rating 1 out of 5]

Don't bother with this book. I wanted a short book that told just a little bit about each vice president. I thought this book fit the bill. But the way the authors treated the facts and anecdotes I did know made me question if those I DIDN'T know were accurate. Plus, there was an unfortunate bias that occasionally cropped up that made the book even more frustrating.

[Nicholas Whyte]

"http://nwhyte.livejournal.com/1272485.html[return][return]A book of simple facts about the 46 men who have served as vice-president of the USA, nicely produced by comics publishers Top Shelf Productions. I have a feeling that a lot of it is taken from Steve Tally's Bland Ambition, but the authors have been decent enough to provide extensive bibliographies on each. For extra value they add some late twentieth-century also-rans (Curtis LeMay, Thomas Eagleton, Geraldine Ferraro and Admiral James Stockdale, of whom only Ferraro was actually on a major party ticket come the election.)[return][return]I did learn a few things from it. I had no idea that Henry A. Wallace was such a loon, or that the LBJ/Humphrey relationship was so poisonous. (I can't quite get my head around LBJ not endorsing his own VP in as tight an election year as 1968.) I was aware of the character flaws of Daniel Tompkins and Spiro Agnew, but boggled a bit at the details. On the other hand, the entertaining chapter on John C. Calhoun omits the pertinent fact that he resigned a couple of months before the end of his term.[return][return]Still, I laughed out loud at the description of Dick Cheney as exuding 'the palpable, if unfounded, sense that he has either killed men with his bare hands or hired shadowy others to do it for him in Washington D.C. parking garages very late at night.'"

[Steven · Rating 3 out of 5]

This introduction on Boing Boing brought my attention to this very funny look at the second-most powerful and topmost boring job our nation -- Vice President of the United States

It's a quick read -- three or four pages on most of the veeps, with fun facts and humorous stories about each. I found the descriptions of the often rancorous relationships between the President and the also-rans the most interesting -- relationships which ran from indifference to outright hostility. This book also highlights the confusion that the ambiguity of the vice president's role has caused -- especially at the beginning of our country's history when no one, least of all the vice president himself, was sure what he was supposed to do with all his free time. In many cases, that time was spent getting into trouble...

This book also has cartoon and caricatures in it, which I didn't feel leant much to the book. Most of them looked like the drawings of Rich Uncle Pennybags from Monopoly.

All in all, I recommend this book, if for no other reason than to learn about these figures, most of whom I had never heard of.

[Gedvondur · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's a collection of various facts about the Vice Presidents of the United States. Unsatisfying, they often do not follow through with the ultimate fate of any given VP, unless he dies in an interesting manner.

The book is written in a jarring style, both historian-proper and Buzzfeed style hype. Honestly, it took a good subject and then mostly failed in delivering. The authors spent too much time being trying to be snarky and clever and too little time on the men. There was a constant whip-saw back and forth of snark and admiration....at least for those VPs who got any admiration at all.

I wanted more and better, I was disappointed overall with this one. Two stars.

[Zachary · Rating 4 out of 5]

An illustrated guide to the US Vice Presidents is truly right up my alley. I work in a used bookstore and I happily paid full price for this new. The entries are short but fun. Each VP gets a few lines of bio followed by points of trivia. If you know anything at all about the history of the Vice Presidency, you'll not be shocked at the general wackiness of many holders of the position. I know I'm in a small minority here, but I think I would have liked the book even more if it had been less light and more thorough.

[Tyler Hill · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book made me feel better about the current state of American politics by reminding me that things have always been sort of an ongoing trainwreck when it comes to the men who have been chosen to run this country, and specifically their second-in-commands.

Veeps is a very funny book looking at the misfit gallery which makes up America's chain of Vice Presidents. Who are, apparently, a line-up of misfits, rogues, criminals and dunces of the highest calibur.

Funny stuff, only slightly tarnished by some uneven writing.

[D. · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a fascinating, albeit brief, overview of all the men who ever filled the role of US Vice President. It's written in a dry, humorous style, and encapsulates the lives and careers of each VP, including humorous quotations and "fast facts."

It's very well-written, and there are sources in the back if you want to read more on the materials presented.

More than anything though, it shows that, until recently, VP was a job that no one really WANTED, and many wished they had never accepted!

Recommended for history buffs, or folks who want to learn and laugh while they do it.

[El_kiablo · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was clearly designed to be a bathroom reader style book, with each chapter being pretty short and focusing almost exclusively on funny anecdotes. To that end I would say that it's well executed since I could see this being entertaining spread out over a lot of little bursts, since all the chapters are the right size and there's no consistent throughline that you have to remember. I've seen funnier bathroom books, but this was perfectly fine.

[Googoogjoob · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lighthearted capsule biographies of America's Vice Presidents, with an emphasis on the amusing and anecdotal. It's fun. There are little caricatures. The print edition is complete up to Cheney; the Kindle edition adds a chapter for Biden, who was elected exactly three days after the print edition was published.

[The Cute Little Brown-haired girl · Rating 5 out of 5]

MY BROTHER WROTE THIS!!!! IT'S AN ELECTION YEAR. YOU NEED THIS BOOK ABOUT ALL THE VICE PRESIDENTS IN HISTORY AND ALL THE FUNNY, STRANGE AND WEIRD STUFF THEY DID, SAID, AND WERE INVOLVED IN. YA GOTTA LOVE IT!

[Ryan Haupt · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great read for the trivia buff in your life. Sometimes the writing, which has to be succinct, loses some context and becomes ambiguous. Regardless, a tone of fun and facts in a handsome little package.

[Joe Vess · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really good book; fun, funny and engaging. It's not so much scholarly as good anecdotes and hilarious asides (as suggested by the subtitle: "Profiles in Insignificance.") The Dan Quayle section is priceless, as you might expect.

[Keith Davis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Subtitled "Profiles in Insignificance," this book consists of short profiles of the party apparatchiks, back-room manipulators, geriatric politicians, seat-fillers, and general incompetents who have held the most crucial and least influential office in American government.

[Chip Supanich · Rating 3 out of 5]

A really funny brief history of the much maligned and frequently controversial office of Vice President of the United States. An easy entertaining read, and I learned some interesting trivia along the way.

[AZ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty funny little book spanning the not so illustrious history of the men who stood a heartbeat away from the Presidency. Sometimes we get TR and Truman, other times we get John Tyler and Andrew Johnson.

[Norman McLaughlin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Found it entertaining

It's funny to think about what what people held the aledged second highest office in the land and at times how little thought often went into selecting a possible President of the United States.

[Caleb · Rating 4 out of 5]

I interviewed the author here:
http://www.newsarama.com/comics/11080...

[Nancy · Rating 3 out of 5]

A great way to learn a little bit about our history along with history details that you may not be familiar to you.

[Jimi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazingly entertaining book. A must for History buffs, fans of cartooning and humor. I loved this one and had trouble putting it down.

[marcali · Rating 4 out of 5]

funny bits with great illustrations

[Nicole · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interesting (and funny) book, but inadequately footnoted. Also, using Wikipedia as source material makes it a bit, um, suspect.

[Jonathan · Rating 5 out of 5]

The people you never knew, the Vice Presidents of the United States.

[Tori]

2009- More boring than I was expecting.

[John Buerk · Rating 2 out of 5]

It is a very interesting read until you get into the later "veeps". This is when the author shows his liberal bias.