Tag: Book Review
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The Lost Art of Scripture: Karen Armstrong and the Recovery of Sacred Reading
A critical and comparative review of Karen Armstrong’s The Lost Art of Scripture, examining her claim that sacred texts were originally performed, interpreted, embodied, and continually renewed rather than reduced to literal propositions.
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Crossing Over: Muhammad Haji Salleh’s Menyeberang Sejarah and the Long Labour of Malay Self-Understanding
A deep critical review of Muhammad Haji Salleh’s Menyeberang Sejarah: Kumpulan Esei Pilihan — the Sasterawan Negara’s landmark essay collection on Malay literature, postcolonial theory, and the crossing between tradition and world literature.
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Satan’s Strategy: Machiavelli, Milton, and the Logic of Cosmic Power (A Review of “Satan’s Strategy” in Lawrence Freedman’s Strategy: A History)
This essay reviews “Satan’s Strategy” in Lawrence Freedman’s Strategy: A History through a reading of the relationship between Machiavelli, Milton, and the figure of Satan in Paradise Lost. Within it, Satan is understood not merely as a symbol of evil but as a strategic actor who tries to use force, rhetoric, deception, and intelligence operations…
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The Kremlin School of Negotiation: Silence, Psychological Pressure, and the Politics of Power
Igor Ryzov’s The Kremlin School of Negotiation is not merely a business manual on hard bargaining. It is a strategic anatomy of silence, pressure, emotional control, and power at the negotiation table. This essay reads Ryzov’s book through the lenses of Soviet diplomacy, psychological leverage, business strategy, and ethical risk. From Andrei Gromyko’s “Mr. Nyet”…
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Isaiah Berlin dan The Roots of Romanticism: Sebuah Ulasan Kritis
Isaiah Berlin melalui The Roots of Romanticism menghadirkan kuliah monumental yang menjelaskan Romantisisme bukan sekadar aliran seni, tetapi sebuah revolusi intelektual melawan rasionalitas Pencerahan. Buku ini menunjukkan bagaimana gagasan tentang kebebasan individu, pluralitas nilai, dan relativisme budaya lahir dari semangat Romantik yang menolak definisi tunggal kebenaran. Dengan gaya analisis tajam, Berlin menguraikan akar-akar Romantisisme dan…
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Menggagas Indonesia Masa Depan: Gagasan Djoko Santoso tentang Kepemimpinan, Budaya, dan Kemandirian Bangsa
Menggagas Indonesia Masa Depan karya Jenderal (Purn.) H. Djoko Santoso adalah refleksi seorang prajurit bangsa yang memikirkan arah kebangsaan, budaya, pluralisme, kemandirian, dan kepemimpinan Indonesia. Buku ini menegaskan bahwa masa depan Indonesia hanya bisa dibangun melalui integrasi kebangsaan yang kokoh, budaya yang berkepribadian, pluralisme yang inklusif, kemandirian yang tangguh, dan kepemimpinan yang berintegritas. Dengan gaya…
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Intelligence Elsewhere – Intelijen Global di Luar Bayang-Bayang Barat
Buku Intelligence Elsewhere: Spies and Espionage Outside the Anglosphere karya Philip H. J. Davies & Kristian C. Gustafson menantang dominasi narasi intelijen Barat dengan menghadirkan studi komparatif tentang praktik intelijen di Asia, Afrika, Timur Tengah, hingga Amerika Latin. Dari Sun Tzu, Kautilya, hingga reformasi intelijen di Indonesia, buku ini membuka mata kita bahwa intelijen bukan…