Books with author Joel K. Goldstein

“I am nothing, but I may be everything,” John Adams, the first vice president, wrote of his office. And for most of American history, the “nothing” part of Adams’s formulation accurately captured the importance of the vice presidency, at least as long as the president had a heartbeat. But a job that once was “not worth a bucket of warm spit,” according to John Nance Garner, became, in the hands of the most recent vice presidents, critical to the governing of the country on an ongoing basis. It is this dramatic development of the nation’s second office that Joel K. Goldstein traces and explains in The White House Vice Presidency. The rise of the vice presidency took a sharp upward trajectory with the vice presidency of Walter Mondale. In Goldstein’s work we see how Mondale and Jimmy Carter designed and implemented a new model of the office that allowed the vice president to become a close presidential adviser and representative on missions that mattered. Goldstein takes us through the vice presidents from Mondale to Joe Biden, presenting the arrangements each had with his respective president, showing elements of continuity but also variations in the office, and describing the challenges each faced and the work each did. The book also examines the vice-presidential selection process and campaigns since 1976, and shows how those activities affect and/or are affected by the newly developed White House vice presidency.The book presents a comprehensive account of the vice presidency as the office has developed from Mondale to Biden. But The White House Vice Presidency is more than that; it also shows how a constitutional office can evolve through the repetition of accumulated precedents and demonstrates the critical role of political leadership in institutional development. In doing so, the book offers lessons that go far beyond the nation's second office, important as it now has become.

“I am nothing, but I may be everything,” John Adams, the first vice president, wrote of his office. And for most of American history, the “nothing” part of Adams’s formulation accurately captured the importance of the vice presidency, at least as long as the president had a heartbeat. But a job that once was “not worth a bucket of warm spit,” according to John Nance Garner, became, in the hands of the most recent vice presidents, critical to the governing of the country on an ongoing basis. It is this dramatic development of the nation’s second office that Joel K. Goldstein traces and explains in The White House Vice Presidency. The rise of the vice presidency took a sharp upward trajectory with the vice presidency of Walter Mondale. In Goldstein’s work we see how Mondale and Jimmy Carter designed and implemented a new model of the office that allowed the vice president to become a close presidential adviser and representative on missions that mattered. Goldstein takes us through the vice presidents from Mondale to Joe Biden, presenting the arrangements each had with his respective president, showing elements of continuity but also variations in the office, and describing the challenges each faced and the work each did. The book also examines the vice-presidential selection process and campaigns since 1976, and shows how those activities affect and/or are affected by the newly developed White House vice presidency.The book presents a comprehensive account of the vice presidency as the office has developed from Mondale to Biden. But The White House Vice Presidency is more than that; it also shows how a constitutional office can evolve through the repetition of accumulated precedents and demonstrates the critical role of political leadership in institutional development. In doing so, the book offers lessons that go far beyond the nation's second office, important as it now has become.

“I am nothing, but I may be everything,” John Adams, the first vice president, wrote of his office. And for most of American history, the “nothing” part of Adams’s formulation accurately captured the importance of the vice presidency, at least as long as the president had a heartbeat. But a job that once was “not worth a bucket of warm spit,” according to John Nance Garner, became, in the hands of the most recent vice presidents, critical to the governing of the country on an ongoing basis. It is this dramatic development of the nation’s second office that Joel K. Goldstein traces and explains in The White House Vice Presidency. The rise of the vice presidency took a sharp upward trajectory with the vice presidency of Walter Mondale. In Goldstein’s work we see how Mondale and Jimmy Carter designed and implemented a new model of the office that allowed the vice president to become a close presidential adviser and representative on missions that mattered. Goldstein takes us through the vice presidents from Mondale to Joe Biden, presenting the arrangements each had with his respective president, showing elements of continuity but also variations in the office, and describing the challenges each faced and the work each did. The book also examines the vice-presidential selection process and campaigns since 1976, and shows how those activities affect and/or are affected by the newly developed White House vice presidency.The book presents a comprehensive account of the vice presidency as the office has developed from Mondale to Biden. But The White House Vice Presidency is more than that; it also shows how a constitutional office can evolve through the repetition of accumulated precedents and demonstrates the critical role of political leadership in institutional development. In doing so, the book offers lessons that go far beyond the nation's second office, important as it now has become.

Star Child, written in a fairy tale genre similar to The Little Prince and The Alchemist is a book for young and mature adults. It explores in a simple and poetic way the challenges facing two “star children,” Terra and Marius, on their journey to learn about being human. Set in a faraway time and place, they confront the same problems of modern humans: fear, loneliness, the need to please, and the stigma of showing their true selves when they do not fit in with those around them. Betraying their own hearts, each gives up or misuses the very things that make them unique. On their magical journey to find themselves and each other, they encounter wise teachers in the creatures of the sea and earth, the trees of the forest, and the elders of their world.EXCERPTSEARTHShe stood in the waving green meadow and took it all in: the stalks of grass moving in the curved palm of the wind; the gentle hum of a wayward bee easing first away, then closer to touch her; the amber of the sun’s bright globe painting her face and arms; the taste of lavender in the air slipping past her lips and melting on her tongue. And she felt such joy that every part of her being filled up, and being filled, welled over as tears. The star child had planted herself in this earth meadow seven winters earlier, the soul-seed of a dying star burning its path through a midnight sky. Only the sparrows and cottontails, fooled from their sleep by the brilliant light, witnessed the last hiss of steam and the fading glow of the crystal as it slipped beneath the silver snow carpet.The child tugged her feet from the grip of the moist earth. Her skin was translucent, like the pale roots of a plant. The blue lines of her veins decorated her wrists and arms and at her temple where her red hair began its twisting journey to her waist. Meadow flowers circled her head and trailed down each shoulder. Her garment was all shades of light, changing in the sun and shadows so that one moment it appeared torn from a sunset and in the next as rippling sea foam.SEAThe dolphins circled the glowing crystal and followed until it came to rest upon the white sand of the ocean bottom. With their tails, they spun a seaweed cradle. They sang songs of cresting waves, the moonlit dance of foam, lullabies in the endless rhythm of the sea. They kept watch over their treasure, transfixed by its gentle rhythmic currents stroking their skin. The dolphins brought gifts of coral and scallops, pearls and tortoiseshell and sea-worn glass in pastel hues as they waited through the tidal seasons. A child grew there in the ocean bed, taking his colors from his watery womb, the brown of driftwood to his hair and the green of sea moss and luminous plankton to color his eyes. The coral and gray of beach rocks and shells burnished his skin. He wore an iridescent garment that shimmered like sea spray in the sun. A ring of shell and sea glass graced his neck...

Imagine two mystical and mysterious beings descend from the heavens. What could their journey on earth possibly teach us? Only what it means to be truly human. And that is the greatest lesson of all. -- Meredith Vieira, television journalist. Terra and Marius are star children, heavenly beings who come to earth with all their special wisdom and powers to live as human beings in a faraway time and place. They face the challenges of fear, loneliness, the need to please, and the stigma of showing their true selves when they do not fit in with those around them. Betraying their own hearts, each gives up or misuses the very things that make them unique. As they seek a return to their true selves, Terra must find the courage to offer her healing gifts to others, and Marius must learn how to live again with an open heart in a world that is often cruel to those most sensitive. Along the way, they encounter wise teachers in the creatures of the sea and earth, the trees of the forest, and the elders of their world. In this universal and touching tale of love and loss, young adults and old souls will treasure their encounter with the star children on their magical journey back to themselves and each other.