Anyone who thinks the vice presidency is irrelevant needs to read this important book.

Brian Ripley, Mercyhurst College

This is not only good policy, but good history as well. Kengor illuminates fascinating events about each vice president, many of which heretofore remained untold.

Don Goldstein, University of Pittsburgh

Future White House chiefs of staff should consult this book.

Michael Paul Palaschak, Center for Strategic and International Studies Presi

It is in the nature of things that a vice president's contributions to policy will be subtle and obscure, and that "credit" will be deflected rather than documented. Dr. Kengor's insights about the modern vice presidency's growing importance is all the more impressive for that reason. It is a product of aggressive, old-fashioned research-more interviews than search engines, more telephones than data links, and more shoe leather than email. No one will fully understand the American policy process any longer without a grasp of the vice president's expanding role. . . . This text breaks new ground in our search for that understanding.

R. Joseph De Sutter, Former Assistant National Security Advisor to the Vice President