politics – Scott J. Pearson’s Book Review

Madam Secretary: A Memoir by Madeleine Albright

By Scott J. Pearson | August 2, 2024August 2, 2024 by Scott J. Pearson

Madeleine Albright served in Bill Clinton’s administration as UN Ambassador and Secretary of State – the first female ever in that role. Since Clinton was especially active in international diplomacy, she held a front-row seat and observed many international characters and diplomatic ventures. Further, her career broke the glass ceiling for women in government, and she did it while being a doting mother, grandmother, and even a divorcee. Finally, along with her birth family, she…

Radical Inclusion: Seven Steps to Help You Create a More Just Workplace, Home & World

By Scott J. Pearson | June 4, 2023August 13, 2023 by Scott J. Pearson

David Moinina Sengeh was seemingly at the peak of a great career triumph. Educated in America at Harvard and MIT, he was now a governmental cabinet member of education in his home country Sierra Leone. However, at the very beginning of his president’s term, the president – his boss – said that he would maintain the previous regime’s policy of banning pregnant girls from school. To most, this move seemed to make sense. However, to…

Biography-Memoir Religion-Philosophy

Testimony: Inside the Evangelical Movement that Failed a Generation

By Scott J. Pearson | May 14, 2023May 14, 2023 by Scott J. Pearson

Evangelicalism grew popular in the 1980s-1990s, yet many, like myself and Jon Ward, were wounded by a movement that seemed more self-interested and self-absorbed than interested in bettering the real world. Ward’s memoir/”testimony” (a common term in evangelical religion) conveys this culture clearly. A pastor’s son, he describes how some of his one-time evangelical heroes fell in notable ways in the lead-up to and during the Trump administration. Ward himself has built a notable career…

Politics Religion-Philosophy

How to Be a Patriotic Christian: Love of Country as Love of Neighbor

By Scott J. Pearson | January 28, 2023January 28, 2023 by Scott J. Pearson

What does it mean to be simultaneously a devout Christian and an American citizen? Are such dual allegiances even possible? In this book, Mouw – a scholarly, religious expert on the Christian’s place in the (American) public square – offers a case that these domains can be compatible with each other… for the most part. He does so in a way that sides neither with the left nor the right, but instead welcomes warm-hearted debate…

Psychology Society

Belonging: The Science of Creating Connection & Bridging Divides

By Scott J. Pearson | November 2, 2022November 2, 2022 by Scott J. Pearson

In recent decades, American society has collectively forgotten the virtue of fostering belonging in others. There seem to be many causes contributing to this central effect – political partisanship, technology, police injustices, lingering racism, the capitalistic thrust of media, and more. Cohen, a Stanford psychology professor, takes aim at this rich topic by presenting a comprehensive theory driven by research and then drawing out several practical applications. He does so to help modern social problems…

Politics Science Society

Genomic Politics: How the Revolution in Genomic Science is Shaping American Society

By Scott J. Pearson | July 10, 2021July 10, 2021 by Scott J. Pearson

Hochschild, an academic political scientist, has been closely following genomic research for the last decade. In this book, she presents a comprehensive summary of where the politics of genomics currently is in America and where we are going. She contends that genomics hasn’t split into traditional left-versus-right camps (yet) primarily because most people tend to be for curing difficult diseases. However, other camps are forming, and she accordingly divides public opinion into Enthusiasts, Hopefuls, Skeptics,…