Resources
Political Science on the Vice Presidency
The White House Vice Presidency: The Path to Significance, Mondale to Biden
Joel K. Goldstein, University Press of Kansas (2016)
Joel Goldstein is the dean of vice presidential scholars, and this book brings together his decades of research and insight into how the position has evolved since President Carter and Vice President Mondale revamped the nation’s second highest office in the late 1970s.
Do Running Mates Matter? The Influence of Vice Presidential Candidates in Presidential Elections
Christopher J. Devine and Kyle C. Kopko, University Press of Kansas (2020)
Every four years, when the vice president is picked, pundits discuss the political implications of the choice. Devine and Kopko apply rigorous political science methodologies to test the various tenets of conventional wisdom about VP picks.
Historians and Journalists on the Vice Presidency
The American Vice Presidency: From Irrelevance to Power
Jules Witcover, Smithsonian Books (2014)
Witcover does in-depth profiles each vice president from Adams to Biden with wit and the insight of a long-time political reporter.
Vice President of the United States (President of the Senate), U.S. Senates
The Vice President is also the President of the Senate, so the U.S. Senate provides an online overview of the office and profiles of each of its holders.
Books by or About Specific Vice Presidents (and those close to them)
Dick Cheney
In My Time: A Personal and Political Memoir
Dick Cheney with Liz Cheney, Threshold Editions (2011)
In his memoir, Cheney is blunt about who he is and what he believes. You don’t have to agree with him, but Cheney’s memoir is an essential resource for understanding his approach to the vice presidency and decision-making in the Bush-Cheney administration.
George H.W. Bush
Destiny and Power: The American Odyssey of George Herbert Walker Bush
Jon Meacham, Random House (2015)
Although he spent eight years in the role, Bush’s time as vice president is only a small part of this biography. Still, this chronicle of the life of a great American and decent person is an engaging read.
When Things Went Right: The Dawn of the Reagan-Bush Administration
Chase Untermeyer, Texas A&M University Press (2013)
Chase Untermeyer served as the personal assistant to Vice President Bush from the beginning of the Reagan administration until early 1983. This memoir, based off of Untermeyer’s diary, provides a nuts and bolts sense of daily work in the White House beside a vice president building a relationship with the president.
Walter Mondale
The Good Fight: A Life in Liberal Politics
Walter F. Mondale with David Hage, Scribner (2010)
Engaging, honest, and modest Mondale recounts his life in politics, his time in the White House as vice president, and his campaign for president in 1984. Mondale revolutionized the vice presidency, but he also was the first major party candidate to choose a woman as his running mate.