First in Line audiobook

This is an easy readable book. Brower is a journalist and writes in that style. Because she is not a historian, facts are presented but there is no historical analysis or academic documentation. The book is well written and researched. Brower tells the history of the vice presidents and how the method of choosing the VP to his role in office has changed over the history of our country. Brower states no one wants to be the vice president. Nine vice presidents have become president after the president either died, was assassinated or resigned. Of those vice presidents who became presidents, Brower states some have been poor presidents and some became significant presidents.Brower provided a brief biography of the vice presidents since Truman to the most current one. I found the information about Dan Quayle and Mike Pence interesting and new to me; all the others I was quite familiar with. The book starts off strong but becomes gossipy in the last half. The author might have done better shorting the book and making it more concise. Over all, I enjoyed the book and did pick up some new information about vice presidents. The author has triggered me to want to read some biographies about some of the vice presidents.I read this as an audiobook downloaded from Audible. The book is almost eleven hours. Fred Sanders does a good job narrating the book. Sanders is an actor, voice-over artist and audiobook narrator. I would give this book 3.5 stars, but unable to do halves, so gave it a 4.

I had NO IDEA Nelson Rockefeller's son was likely eaten by cannibals, so if for no other reason, this book was a winner to me. I mean, the rest of the book was good too, but if you're an adult who could legitimately join a group called "goths whose favorite color is pink" then it really doesn't get much better than that.

I adored this book. There was a program in December 2020 on CNN about the Vice Presidency and then I read this, which had some of the information that was on the CNN program. However, this was much more in-depth and looked at the relationships between Eisenhower/Nixon up to Trump/Pence. It did also take a look at FDR/Truman and how in the dark Truman was until he came into the Presidency. It's very interesting how the Vice Presidency only came into a true partnership with the game changing arrangement between Carter/Mondale. You look back at all the men who occupied the VP office (those you can remember and not have to look up anyways) and wonder at the wasted potential. This book takes a look at the modern day men who have been VP (this was written in 2018) and shows their personalities as well as their policies. Each man was pretty open and candid with the authoress. Given that it was written in 2018, I would give a lot for an updated version with former VP Mike Pence and if his loyalty to Trump has been shaken or broken in the aftermath of the failed coup in January 2020. His chapter ends with making it clear at the time Pence had his eyes on running for President in the future. One wonders if that desire has cooled off given events.All in all I found this an engaging and fascinating read. If you're a history buff like me and interested in how the VP/P relationship changed in the modern day, and how that came about, then pick this up. I also learned that Dick Cheney has a sense of humor. Who would have thought that of him behind his Darth Vader-like persona?Pick this up. It's worth it.

I was pretty much riveted by all the anecdotes from the working/personal relationships of modern VPs and their respective POTUSes (from Vice President Nixon and President Eisenhower all the way up through Vice President Pence and President Trump). Some tidbits include:--Nixon could not please Eisenhower, who told reporters they'd have to get back to him on a single accomplishment of Nixon during his VP years in Eisenhower's administration.--LBJ fared little better under JFK, until JFK died; then he got the cherry he wanted.--Humphrey was treated the same ways under LBJ.--Reagan wanted former Pres. Ford as his VP, but Ford wanted too much and finally declined, so Reagan felt compelled to ask George H. W. Bush, though he was rankled by Bush's comments during the primary about Reagan's "voodoo economics."--Earlier when Ford ran against Carter, his advisers begged him to select Reagan, but Ford absolutely would not, rankled that Reagan had ran a primary against him, a sitting president.--Mondale and Carter transformed the vice-presidency.--Clinton defied political wisdom in selecting Al Gore, but he still won. Clinton and Gore's relationship started off strong but declined, especially when the Lewinsky scandal came to light.The book doesn't move in chronological order but highlights various aspects of the vice presidency and then uses the modern vice presidents as illustrations, so that you're bouncing between administrations, which keeps the reader's interest. The last two chapters, however, focused on Biden and Obama, and Pence and Trump, respectively. These two chapters felt far more subjective than the rest of the book.

I was hoping this book would cover more about vice presidents that weren’t so recent, but a good portion of it is about Biden and Pence… and it was really hard to not just skip the sections about Pence. That being said, I did enjoy learning about all the squabbles between Reagan/Ford/Bush. It’s also funny just how many quotes there are about vice presidents who hate the position. There’s a lot of jumping around in the narrative, so I think the strongest parts are actually the falling out between Clinton and Gore, and the focus at the end on the relationship between Biden and Obama, which was surprising to me that it started off rocky. I think I would have liked this better if it had been chronological.See more of my reviews: Blog // Instagram

Brower provides a look at the dynamics between US presidents and vice presidents from Eisenhower/Nixon to Trump/Pence as well as the various routes the vice presidents' careers took following their times in office. In addition to plenty of gossip, there's some actually interesting stuff here, as well as an account of how the role of vice president has changed and grown both more defined and more important over the terms served by the thirteen vice presidents portrayed.

Inside look at the relationships between president and VP and how it has changed over time. I love learning about the personal relationships that they had and how that effected their jobs.

I can't get enough of these books.

This book looks to offer insight into one of the most visible, and most derided, jobs in America: Vice President of the United States. Brower limits the scope of this work to the Post-World War II America, so this would cover the lives and actions of 13 men who held this unique position in American politics. It is a job that has a lot of stakes (should something happen to the President, be it death or resignation, the VP will become the President, which has happened three times since World War II), and one that is seen as political backwater. You don't have to read this work for very long to realize that no one ever says their life's vision is to become the Vice President of the United States. Anderson does provide a good deal of person insight and correspondence, especially of those more recent Vice Presidents and their families. There is no one way to be a Vice President, and how a President uses and treats a Vice President varies from Presidency to Presidency. Sometimes it can be a strong relationship (Carter/Mondale, Reagan/Bush)...and sometimes, it is a poisonous mixture (Johnson/Humphrey). In most cases, the VP will show deferential respect to the President, but the men who are VPs are usually men who have their eyes set on the top job, and the "Back-up" role does not suit their egos. In a lot of cases, the relationships between VPs and Presidents do not always end well, as a common theme is that post presidency, the VPs and the Presidents have, at best, a "cordial" relationship. At first, the book seemed to jump around in organization, ranging from discussions of the political backstories of how VPs are selected, the impact on the "Second Ladies", etc...but by the mid-way point, the book starts to follow a chronological order. Perhaps if it started out that way, it might have been stronger. Still, a good read for those who want insights into a somewhat under-reported position.

“First in Line” is an examination of the relationships between modern vice-presidents from Nixon to Pence and the presidents they served from Eisenhower to Trump. Drawn more from anecdote than political analysis it emphasizes more, but not exclusively, the personal relationships over the political. In keeping with what I just said, what new insights are presented tend to be in the inter-personal rather than official realms. The current running through the book is that the vice-presidents are clearly number two, never to outshine, publicly disagree with or establish an independent persona from the men who chose them. On an individual basis this work adheres to the prevailing story lines: Eisenhower treated Nixon like a lower level officer; the social distinctions between Kennedy and Johnson resulted in Lyndon being employed on largely insubstantial matters, deflating his ambitions despite his desperate efforts to ingratiate himself; LBJ humiliated Humphrey to make his term as miserable as what he had endured; Nixon and Agnew were a train wreck from the start and Ford kept his distance as Nixon slowly unraveled; Ford’s vision of utilizing Rockefeller’s vast experience crumbled under conservative opposition that made him the only modern vice-president to be dumped from the ticket; Carter made Mondale his top advisor and transformed the vice-president into a key fixture in the administration; Reagan accepted Bush as a necessity after Ford turned him down, but they forged a team, but not a close friendship; Bush’s choice of Quayle was surprising and not particularly successful; Clinton and Gore began as near bros and ended in mutual near contempt; although Cheney was, in the first term, the most powerful vice-president, his relationship with Bush was all business; Obama and Biden grew to affection; Pence walks the tight-rope while he tries to maintain a semblance of stability in a chaotic Trump White House.I most appreciated the little-known facts picked up on these pages. I had heard that Ike and Nixon had an agreement on how Nixon would act if Ike were alive but incapacitated. Here we read of some of its details. The extensive account of VP vetting was fascinating. Obama’s plea that Biden not sell his house to help his family and Pence’s consultation with Cheney and Biden reveal the human side of the political class.Author Kate Andersen Brower has crafted a very readable and informative account of this most complex and uniquely American pas-de-deux.

A quick, smooth, easy read, very engaging writing. A neat internal look at “the most insignificant office ever contrived” (John Adams) and its evolution into a powerful governing partner, and in one case, perhaps a shadow President (Dick Cheney). Focusing on the modern Vice Presidency, the book details the Vice Presidencies of Dick Nixon (ignored and disregarded), Lyndon Johnson (ditto Nixon, with an element of contempt), Hubert Humphrey (humiliated and silenced), Spiro Agnew (forced to resign), Gerald Ford (installed as a political expedient), Nelson Rockefeller (chosen and chucked), Walter Mondale (the first modern VP of power and influence), George HW Bush (stepped back from the limelight until he stepped up), Dan Quayle (forever mocked and laughed at), Al Gore (brotherhood that turned into bitterness), Dick Cheney (the master manipulator), Joe Biden (the heart to his Prez’s head), and finally Mike Pence (the silent servant). The theme that emerged, prior to Mondale, was one of ignorance, contempt, or even rivalry, edging over into humiliation. The Vice President has no officially described duties save presiding over the Senate and breaking ties, and assuming the Presidency. So why do so many seek it? Well, because you are, truly, “a heartbeat away.” Of the men mentioned, five of them became President in their own right, and a sixth, Gore, came closer to winning without actually winning than any man in history. The chance to shape policy, and then to rise and shape history, is an allure worth the trials and tribulations

Very informative and direct piece of work on Vice Presidents, going back to Nixon and moving up to Pence. The early chapters being out of continuity but the later ones detailing each administration's. This was a thoughtful and poignant work on possibly the most unsung worker in DC; the vice president, and their curious relationship to the current president. All of them stand a heart-beat away from becoming the President of the United States; yet most of them are treated so far beneath contempt and disdain that a new word might need be used for it. Some of the relationships (Obama-Biden) were better than others; but some (Johnson-Humphries) were far far worse (or even Eisenhower-Nixon).There is a large amount of 'backstage gossip' and that mostly drives the book. Its not so much policy and history as the relationships of President/VP and of VP and the staff and aides of the White House and the Observatory. While much of this is fascinating, we only get a real look at their time(s) in office at the end during their personal chapter, and sadly its not as deeply informal or enriching as could be.Luckily much of the book refrains from political bias and both Democrat and Republican VPs (and Presidents) are treated fairly the same. (Though Trump might take a fair bit of criticism, though much warranted in a way). Definitely worth a read for anyone interested in White House politics or VP's in general (or even Presidents).

Nonfiction book (2018) on modern vice presidents had much to like, gathering information from other books in addition to many new interviews, including those from all six then-living former vice presidents. Perhaps most interesting of those was that of the Clinton-Gore relationship, which began as one of equals and disintegrated. Less interesting because of its obvious bias — and now outdated — were the sections on Joe Biden and Mike Pence. The author admits she traveled with Biden on occasions during coverage of the Obama administration, and her depiction of him — in a section longer than others — is akin to a big, wet kiss. His presidential campaign unquestionably has cast him in a different light than he is pictured here. Meanwhile, Pence is portrayed as one big ball of ambition and obeisance to a dark lord, which history also has proven is a shallow characterization. Still, this is a good book to keep for what it does have.

Great bookI found myself by the end of listening to the book ready to vote for many former Vice Presidents to be presidentThe author painted that position in a humble natureYes, the Vice President is second in command in the United StatesBut, in reality, it is a position that many presidents only choose to help them get elected, and then once elected, the Vice President does not have a job title besides casting a tying vote in the senateSo, their job is ends up being to travel the states and the world going to events that the president does not want to go toIt is deeply humbling to play in this limbo position for 4-8 years when many of them did not want the position in the first placeBy the end of the terms they normally end up better peopleI recommend this book to anyone in a leadership position wanting to learn how to balance their relationship with their second in command

I very much enjoyed this book (audiobook format). We have a habit of forgetting the other side of the Administrative head. I found it to be a great "what-if" exercise at times. As an example: What if the plans Reagan had originally agreed to had actually come to fruition? A fascinating thought experiment. I listened to this just prior to Joe Biden's swearing-in. And for anyone who thinks Pence was just there for a brief moment, this book makes it clear (to me anyway) that he will definitely make an appearance as a presidential candidate. Much like LBJ, he strikes me as a guy chasing power and doing whatever he can to acquire it. I'm curious if my prediction of his run in 2028 will come true.Regardless of current political situations, this book is an excellent exploration of the position of the VP and just how much it has evolved over the years.