Jonah Bennett

Jonah Bennett rated a book it was ok Who Speaks for America?: Why Democracy Matters in Foreign Policy by Eric Alterman	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Who Speaks for America? by Eric Alterman is an utterly strange book. I have to wonder if Alterman wrote it while under the influence of some substance--can't say I have any guesses as to which one--because it is incredibly scrambled and full of ...more
Feb 12, 2020 09:50PM · like · see review
Jonah Bennett shared a quote “All men dream: but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake up in the day to find it was vanity, but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dreams with open eyes, to make it possible.” T.E. Lawrence
Jan 25, 2020 05:29PM · like · more quotes by T.E. Lawrence · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of Seven Pillars of Wisdom by T.E. Lawrence. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — Seven Pillars of Wisdom by T.E. Lawrence <iframe id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Jonah Bennett shared a quote “We are pragmatists. We don't stick to any ideology. Does it work? Let's try it, and if it does work, fine, let's continue it. If it doesn't work, toss it out, try another one. We are not enamored with any ideology.” Lee Kuan Yew
Jan 25, 2020 05:27PM · like · more quotes by Lee Kuan Yew
Jonah Bennett rated a book it was amazing Aquinas: A Beginner's Guide by Edward Feser	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
This slim introduction to Aquinas is one of my favorite philosophy books because Edward Feser is an incredibly talented writer (crisp, clean, tight, very tight) and a clear thinker. But this isn't a work of intellectual history, and it's not a ...more
Nov 08, 2019 01:23PM · like · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of Aquinas by Edward Feser. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — Aquinas by Edward Feser <iframe id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Jonah Bennett rated a book really liked it Beyond Cloak And Dagger: Inside The CIA by Miles Copeland Jr.	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
It's difficult to get a handle on what the early CIA looked like without reading the books and memoirs of its earliest officers (as opposed to reading official histories). While Copeland wasn’t recruited into the OSS, the precursor of the CIA, he did ...more
Sep 26, 2019 12:39PM · like · see review
Jonah Bennett rated a book it was amazing George F. Kennan: An American Life by John Lewis Gaddis	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
George F. Kennan is one of America’s most storied titans of Cold War strategy and diplomacy in the 20th century, having played an almost unimaginably large role in writing policy on containing the Soviet Union and reconstructing Europe and Japan in ...more
Sep 25, 2019 12:36PM · like · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of George F. Kennan by John Lewis Gaddis. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — George F. Kennan by John Lewis Gaddis <iframe id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">

Jonah Bennett rated a book it was ok

Who Speaks for America? by Eric Alterman

Who Speaks for America?: Why Democracy Matters in Foreign Policy
by Eric Alterman

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Who Speaks for America? by Eric Alterman is an utterly strange book. I have to wonder if Alterman wrote it while under the influence of some substance--can't say I have any guesses as to which one--because it is incredibly scrambled and full of Who Speaks for America? by Eric Alterman is an utterly strange book. I have to wonder if Alterman wrote it while under the influence of some substance--can't say I have any guesses as to which one--because it is incredibly scrambled and full of completely irrelevant information. Amphetamines, maybe it was amphetamines. Under a deadline.

The core of the thesis is that the U.S. foreign policy apparatus is actually a pseudo-democracy, in the sense that the public has very little say in any of the decision-making process. I very much agree with that thesis from my own research, so I was looking forward to picking up a somewhat obscure book that perhaps had some interesting things to say on the topic. But the chapters were disappointing and didn't stay on topic. The arguments were neither systematic, nor persuasive. Some of the dates were incorrect. Any time Alterman brought up an interesting point, he would end up just writing a stream of consciousness that would end up over the course of several pages on a point that had nothing to do with the original discussion. These weren't even interesting tangents. At least that would've been forgivable. Then a chapter or section would end, leaving me frustrated.

He just didn't prove his point to any satisfaction precisely because he didn't have much to say on the methodology of his arguments. Like with any book written from a journalistic perspective, you're often left somewhat dissatisfied because a few counterexamples or newspaper articles don't aren't exactly sufficient to make the heavy claim that the U.S. foreign policy apparatus is a pseudo-democracy.

The suggested solutions at the end for policy reform are absurd and impractical, although to his credit Alterman basically admits this.

I can't give more than two stars. Was really hoping for something explosive, and I was disappointed. I actually intend after this to read the book a second time, just to make sure I'm not missing anything. If I'm wrong about my original assessment, I'll be sure to update this. ...more

Jonah Bennett shared a quote

Seven Pillars of Wisdom by T.E. Lawrence

“All men dream: but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake up in the day to find it was vanity, but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dreams with open eyes, to make it possible.”
T.E. Lawrence

Jonah Bennett shared a quote

“We are pragmatists. We don't stick to any ideology. Does it work? Let's try it, and if it does work, fine, let's continue it. If it doesn't work, toss it out, try another one. We are not enamored with any ideology.”
Lee Kuan Yew

Jonah Bennett rated a book it was amazing

Aquinas: A Beginner's Guide
by Edward Feser

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This slim introduction to Aquinas is one of my favorite philosophy books because Edward Feser is an incredibly talented writer (crisp, clean, tight, very tight) and a clear thinker. But this isn't a work of intellectual history, and it's not a ...more

Jonah Bennett rated a book really liked it

Beyond Cloak And Dagger by Miles Copeland Jr.

Beyond Cloak And Dagger: Inside The CIA
by Miles Copeland Jr.

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It's difficult to get a handle on what the early CIA looked like without reading the books and memoirs of its earliest officers (as opposed to reading official histories). While Copeland wasn’t recruited into the OSS, the precursor of the CIA, he did It's difficult to get a handle on what the early CIA looked like without reading the books and memoirs of its earliest officers (as opposed to reading official histories). While Copeland wasn’t recruited into the OSS, the precursor of the CIA, he did end up joining the Strategic Services Unit, which was a sort of transitional institution that eventually wound up coalescing into the CIA of the post-World War II environment.

And as part of that environment, Copeland was posted to Damascus in 1947, which would set the tone of his agency career as an Arabist.

One amusing note about the book to start. Beyond Cloak And Dagger, at least the used copy I have, was first published in August 1975. But he also published a number of other titles, as well: The Game Player (1989), Without Cloak Or Dagger (1974), and The Real Spy World (1975).

All of these titles—more or less—contain the same content, with slight updates or subtractions. It was probably much easier in the publishing era of the 1970s to hoodwink different publishers into running books with largely the same content. Google Books didn’t exist at the time.

As for Beyond Cloak And Dagger itself, it’s far less a memoir and more a concrete book on tradecraft and stories of his adventures in the Middle East. This genre is very much underpopulated. Most tradecraft work is either proprietary and accessible only behind closed doors (for good reason), though leaks sometimes make their way into outlets like The Daily Beast or The Intercept. The tradecraft work that does exist publicly is usually of a much more theoretical or abstract bent, and while everyone can imagine theoretical or abstract work that is interesting and insightful, the words ‘theoretical’ and ‘abstract’ have the reputation they have for a very good reason; they’re more often than not bloodless, vague, vacuous, other appropriate descriptors, etc.

Copeland at least makes an attempt to concretize. I can appreciate that, though I wouldn’t necessarily take the stories he tells at face value. In some ways, it has a similar vibe to John Perkins’ viral book of the aughts, Confessions of an Economic Hitman, which was commercially successful enough that Perkins felt compelled to follow-up with at least two more books on the subject. Those books were comparatively lackluster, but probably performed decently well themselves.

But Copeland’s book is still worth reading because it’s different: it has entertaining stories, interesting tradecraft, hypotheses and alternative takes on several notable political events in the Middle East of the 20th century, and details of the mechanics of intelligence agencies. ...more

Jonah Bennett rated a book it was amazing

George F. Kennan: An American Life
by John Lewis Gaddis

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George F. Kennan is one of America’s most storied titans of Cold War strategy and diplomacy in the 20th century, having played an almost unimaginably large role in writing policy on containing the Soviet Union and reconstructing Europe and Japan in ...more