Customer Reviews

Bland Ambition: From Adams to Quayle--The Cranks, Criminals, Tax Cheats, and Golfers Who Made It to Vice President

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Bland Ambition is an uproariously funny, highly irreverent look at the Vice-Presidents of the United States. The author covers every man who has ever served as "Veep" (ending with Dan Quayle), exposing every foible and gaff. I would not recommend this work as a textbook, but it does make an interesting introduction to the men who are completely invisible in most history books.

No punches pulled - this is the story of the men behind the men, and how badly they all performed. A very enjoyable read, entertaining, and informative. Short chapters make it (and I say this reluctantly because it's such a good book) a great bathroom reader. HIGHLY recommended.

Steve Tally looks at America's vice presidents - from John Adams through Dan Quayle and gives us the inside scoop on each of these men's foibles and character flaws. The chapters are short and sweet and hilarious!

Tally introduces us to Vice Presidents who assumed that they were really assistant presidents, vice presidents who never really showed up to work, vice presidents who showed up to work but really shouldn't have bothered and vice presidents who never really grasped the idea that they were supposed to work with their presidents to get things passed through the Congress.

For the researcher paper writers out there, Tally's work would be inappropriate to use as the main source of your information, but it would make a fantastic book to add that little bit of extra to make your paper more interesting to read!

This was truly an enjoyable read. I borrowed mine from the library but I'm adding it to my wish list here because I want to have a copy of my own!

Amusing, But Factually Incorrect an Astonishing Amount of The Time

If you only wish to be amused, go ahead: read this book - say, in the bathroom: but whatever you do, don't, don't, don't use it as a reference source. How the author manages to get so much wrong, in so short a space is, in its way, a marvel to behold. Its as if he's embodying the kind of ineptitude he's chronicling. Want an example? OK. Truman, he says, was playing poker with his cronies when he got a call to come to the White House. "Something must have happened," he says on his way out the door. At the White House, he's sworn in with a Bible left behind in a guest bedroom, and then he goes home to tell Bess. Later that night, he eats a roast beef sandwhich. Ah. But Truman wasn't playing poker: rather, he had just poured himself a drink in Sam Rayburn's office hideaway, at their end-of-day libation ritual. Truman didn't get a call, but a message to call the White House. He did not say "something must have happened" as he ran out. When he got to the White House and was told that FDR had died, he sent for Bess and Margaret to witness his swearing in - which was done, yes, on a Gideon Bible, but it that belonged to the Head Usher. And finally, when he got back to his apartment, his neighbor made him a turkey sandwich, not roast beef. All of these are small details, but... why believe someone who'd rather tell a good story than tell the truth?

Steve Tally put together a fantastic collection on the men who have served as Vice-President. (The book covers all Vice-Presidents up to Dan Quayle, and even Alexander Stevens the lone Vice-President of the Confederacy).

Its not a textbook, but is very entertaining reading.

The profiles of the Vice-Presidents, each about 4-5 pages are humorous-- pulling no punches. Even those who occupy a prominent place in history (Theodore Roosevelt, Harry Truman & others) are not spared.

If you want an entertaining read, with good historical value this is a good one.