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Author Archives: James Thomas Snyder
Don’t worry, Emily Bazelon, you’re wrong
It’s hard to explain why Emily Bazelon’s New York Times Magazine article, sarcastically titled “Free Speech Will Save Our Democracy,” bothers me, so let me start here: Hannah Arendt was not a political philosopher. Hannah Arendt was a political theorist. … Continue reading
“A Means of State Control” (Part Two)
In the first part of this post I dismantled the consensus definition of propaganda, arguing that in part and in total “propaganda” is indistinguishable from any other form of political expression. The only obvious distinguishing aspect between the two definitions … Continue reading
“A Means of State Control”
The Origins of Propaganda (Part One) The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum held an exhibition titled “State of Deception: The Power of Nazi Propaganda” in Washington, D.C., from 2009 and 2011. This dramatic collection of German National Socialist state … Continue reading
Garry Wills’ Qur’an (Part One)
Is Islam as American as apple pie? Both are early imports from Asia Minor – Islam from the Arabian Peninsula by way of Africa and Iberia, apples from southern Kazakhstan by way of Europe – that have grown deep roots … Continue reading
Posted in Book Reviews, Books, Politics and Political Theory
Tagged Denise Spellberg, Estavanico, Garry Wills, Harold Bloom, Islam, Islam in the Americas, Islamic art, laila lalami, Moorish Science Temple of America, Nation of Islam, Qur'an, religion, religions freedom, religious tolerance, Thomas Jefferson, tolerance, Western Canon
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UPDATE: The Price of Promotion – Diversity and Retention
This is a follow-up to my earlier article, “The Price of Promotion,” which criticized the U.S. Foreign Service promotion system. The following analysis is based on the Department of State Bureau of human Resources “Foreign Service Promotion Statistics by Cone, … Continue reading
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The Price of Promotion
The State Department’s employee evaluation process is worse than terrible. It is no better than a gamble. Consider this career choice: you are a second-tour FS-04 consular officer serving your country in an American embassy abroad. You have tenure, which … Continue reading
The Cost of Lies
On April 26, 1986, Reactor #4 at a Soviet nuclear power station in northern Ukraine exploded. As with almost everything in Soviet history, that is about all anyone can agree on, but it was enough. The worst nuclear accident on … Continue reading
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The Secret History of Small Mercies
The most devastating scene in The Lives of Others, Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck’s 2007 film about the East German Stasi, comes near the end when the playwright, played by Sebastian Koch, pulls the wire taps out of his walls of … Continue reading
Tool of the trade
This is an L.C. Smith and Corona Company Standard Typewriter in the collection of the National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C. It is a training model for children: instead of letters printed on the keys, illustrations of animals correspond with … Continue reading
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Belief from the inside out
Carla Power’s Pulitizer Prize-shortlisted If the Oceans Were Ink, an outsider’s meditation on The Holy Qur’an with the help of a learned Islamic scholar, signals a subtle but seismic shift in our intellectual world. It joins other unmistakable indications that mostly secular Western … Continue reading
Posted in Book Reviews, Books, Politics and Political Theory, Public Diplomacy, Uncategorized
Tagged Books, Carla Power, faith, interfaith, Islam, Muslims, politics, Qur'an, religion, Umma
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