Synopses & Reviews
The World Is Flat is Thomas L. Friedmans account of the great changes taking place in our time, as lightning-swift advances in technology and communications put people all over the globe in touch as never beforecreating an explosion of wealth in India and China, and challenging the rest of us to run even faster just to stay in place. This updated and expanded edition features more than a hundred pages of fresh reporting and commentary, drawn from Friedmans travels around the world and across the American heartlandfrom anyplace where the flattening of the world is being felt.
In The World Is Flat, Friedman at once shows how and why globalization has now shifted into warp drive” (Robert Wright, Slate) and brilliantly demystifies the new flat world for readers, allowing them to make sense of the often bewildering scene unfolding before their eyes. With his inimitable ability to translate complex foreign policy and economic issues, he explains how the flattening of the world happened at the dawn of the twenty-first century; what it means to countries, companies, communities, and individuals; how governments and societies can, and must, adapt; and why terrorists want to stand in the way. More than ever, The World Is Flat is an essential update on globalization, its successes and discontents, powerfully illuminated by one of our most respected journalists. Thomas L. Friedman has won the Pulitzer Prize three times for his work at The New York Times. He is the author of three best-selling books: From Beirut to Jerusalem, winner of the National Book Award for nonfiction and still considered to be the definitive work on the Middle East, The Lexus and the Olive Tree: Understanding Globalization, and Longitudes and Attitudes: Exploring the World After September 11. He lives in Bethesda, Maryland, with his family. Winner of the Financial Times/Goldman Sachs Book Award
A New York Times Notable Book
A Christian Science Monitor Best Book of the Year
A Washington Post Best Book of the Year
An Economist Best Book of the Year
When scholars write the history of the world twenty years from now, and they come to the chapter "Y2K to March 2004," what will they say was the most crucial development? The attacks on the World Trade Center on 9/11 and the Iraq war? Or the convergence of technology and events that allowed India, China, and so many other countries to become part of the global supply chain for services and manufacturing, creating an explosion of wealth in the middle classes of the world's two biggest nations, giving them a huge new stake in the success of globalization? And with this "flattening" of the globe, which requires us to run faster in order to stay in place, has the world gotten too small and too fast for human beings and their political systems to adjust in a stable manner?
In this brilliant new book, the award-winning New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman demystifies the brave new world for readers, allowing them to make sense of the often bewildering global scene unfolding before their eyes. With his inimitable ability to translate complex foreign policy and economic issues, Friedman explains how the flattening of the world happened at the dawn of the twenty-first century; what it means to countries, companies, communities, and individuals; and how governments and societies can, and must, adapt. The World Is Flat is the timely and essential update on globalization, its successes and discontents, powerfully illuminated by one of our most respected journalists. This updated and expanded edition of Friedman's 2005 bestseller features a hundred new pages of fresh reporting, insights, and commentary, drawn both from his 2005 travels (to India, to China, to the Middle East) and from his encounters with readers around the country, who have shared their accounts of the flattening of the world as it is being felt in the American heartland. Among the topics covered are: An explanation of Friedman's conviction that the flattening of the world "will be seen in time as one of those fundamental shifts or inflection points, like Gutenbergs invention of the printing press, the rise of the nation-state, or the Industrial Revolution." (Chapter 1) A preview of the emerging "Business Web," in which companies "rent" software at websites like Salesforce.com and have it customized to their needs instead of developing proprietary software and employing a tech department to install ita huge savings in cost and effort. (Chapter 2) An explanation of "uploading" as one of the ten forces that are flattening the world. Uploadingblogging, open-source software, pooled knowledge projects like Wikipedia, and now podcastingenables individuals to bring their experiences and opinions to the whole world more quickly, cheaply, and easily than ever before. (Chapter 2) A definitive explanation of the "triple convergence," in which the flattening of the world has knocked out first the walls, then the ceilings, and now the floors that defined the world as it was before the Wall came down and the flattening began (Chapter 3); and a deeper, sharper explanation of how the move from a vertically organized world to a horizontally organized one will force a "great sorting out" of our values and priorities. (Chapter 4) A mapping of what Friedman calls the "New Middle"the places and spaces in the flat world where middle-class jobs will be foundand an account of the character types who will thrive as "New Middler": collaboration and orchestrators; synthesizers, who blend knowledge across disciplines; explainers, who interpret the tide of new knowledge; leveragers, who can create value from it; adapters, who can move from one New Middle job to the next in the flat world. (Chapter 6) A chapter-long account of "The Right Stuff"the qualities American parents and teachers need to cultivate in American young people so that they will be able to thrive in the flat world: the right education, passion and curiosity (CQ, or curiosity quotient, will be more important than IQ); and the ability to "play well with others." (Chapter 7) The amazing story of how President Bush shunned a meeting of leading "technologists" in the very office building where he was holding a meeting on privatization of Social Securitya story that exemplifies all the misplaced priorities and bungled opportunities of this Administration. (Chapter 8) The story of Ireland's swift rise from poverty to prosperity as it made the right moves to adapt to the flattening of the world. (Chapter 9) A call for a government-led "geo-green" strategy to preserve the earth's environment and natural resources as the entry of billions of people into the middle class in China and India creates huge increases in demand for cars, fuel, water, and the like. A chapter-length explanation of The Globalization of the Local”: of the ways the flattening of the world, and globalization generally, have affected local and regional cultureactually strengthening local and regional identity rather than homogenizing the world American style. (Chapter 13) And additional topics such as Indians tutoring American students online, of trade pacts being concluded through videoconferencing on flat-screen TVS, and of Google "search engine optimizers" and "versatilists." Updated and Expanded Edition "The World Is Flat continues the franchise Friedman has made for himself as a great explicator of and cheerleader for globalization, building upon his 1999 The Lexus and the Olive Tree. Like its predecessor, this book showcases Friedman's gift for lucid dissections of abstruse economic phenomena, his teacher's head, his preacher's heart, his genius for trend-spotting . . . [This book] also shares some of the earlier volume's excitement (mirroring Rajesh Rao's) and hesitations about whether we're still living in an era dominated by old-fashioned states or in a postmodern, globalized era where states matter far less and the principal engine of change is a leveled playing field for international trade."Warren Bass, The Washington Post "[An] exciting and very readable account of globalization . . . [Friedman] provides a compelling case that something big is going on . . . One mark of a great book is that it makes you see things in a new way, and Mr. Friedman certainly succeeds in that goal . . . In his provocative account, Mr. Friedman suggests what this brave new world will mean to all of us, in both the developed and the developing worlds."Joseph E. Stiglitz, The New York Times
"The World Is Flat continues the franchise Friedman has made for himself as a great explicator of and cheerleader for globalization, building upon his 1999 The Lexus and the Olive Tree. Like its predecessor, this book showcases Friedman's gift for lucid dissections of abstruse economic phenomena, his teacher's head, his preacher's heart, his genius for trend-spotting . . . [This book] also shares some of the earlier volume's excitement (mirroring Rajesh Rao's) and hesitations about whether we're still living in an era dominated by old-fashioned states or in a postmodern, globalized era where states matter far less and the principal engine of change is a leveled playing field for international trade."Warren Bass, The Washington Post
"Nicely sums up the explosion of digital-technology advances during the past 15 years and places the phenomenon in its global context . . . [Friedman] never shrinks from the biggest problems and the thorniest issues . . . Ambitious."Paul Mangnusson, BusinessWeek
"Excellent . . . [This book's] insight is true and deeply important . . . The metaphor of a flat world, used by Friedman to describe the next phase of globalization, is ingenious . . . The book is done in Friedman's trademark style. You travel with him, meet his wife and kids, learn about his friends and sit in on his interviews . . . [This method] works in making complicated ideas accessible . . . Friedman has a flair for business reporting and finds amusing stories about Wal-Mart, UPS, Dell, and JetBlue, among others, that relate to his basic theme."Fareed Zakaria, The New York Times Book Review (cover review)
"No one today chronicles global shifts in simple and practical terms quite like Friedman. He plucks insights from his travels and the published press that can leave you spinning like a top."Clayton Jones, The Christian Science Monitor
"Friedman is such a good reporter and writer that he will keep you turning pages . . . [He] is gifted at reducing big trends into easily digestible bites, providing a readable account of the main forces that have flattened the world."Peter Hadekel, Montreal Gazette
"Gives us a glimpse of the brave new flat world that is already upon us . . . [Friedman] writes in a playful manner [and] likes to use lists and new expressions [and] while his technique may at times be lighthearted and informal, Friedman's meaning is clear: Accept the new world, adapt to it and prosper, or ignore the new developments at your peril."Russ L. Juskalian, USA Today
"A brilliant, instantly clarifying metaphor for the latest, arguably the most profound conceptual megashift to rock the world in living memory . . . The World is Flat is well written, a fast read [that] covers all the bases . . . This is an important book."David Ticoll, The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
"Friedman is a smart guy, a good reporter . . . His best writing [in this book] comes when he acknowledges the problems of globalization."Kevin Drum, The Washington Monthly
"Before 9/11, New York Times columnist Friedman was best known as the author of The Lexus and the Olive Tree, one of the major popular accounts of globalization and its discontents. Having devoted most of the last four years of his column to the latter as embodied by the Middle East, Friedman picks up where he left off, saving al-Qaeda et al. for the close. For Friedman, cheap, ubiquitous telecommunications have finally obliterated all impediments to international competition, and the dawning 'flat world' is a jungle pitting 'lions' and 'gazelles,' where 'economic stability is not going to be a feature' and 'the weak will fall farther behind.' Rugged, adaptable entrepreneurs, by contrast, will be empowered. The service sector (telemarketing, accounting, computer programming, engineering and scientific research, etc.), will be further outsourced to the English-spoken abroad; manufacturing, meanwhile, will continue to be off-shored to China. As anyone who reads his column knows, Friedman agrees with the transnational business executives who are his main sources that these developments are desirable and unstoppable, and that American workers should be preparing to 'create value through leadership' and 'sell personality' . . . [The book's] last 100 pages on the economic and political roots of global Islamism are filled with the kind of close reporting and intimate yet accessible analysis that have been hard to come by. Add in Friedman's winning first-person interjections and masterful use of strategic wonksterisms, and this book should end up on the front seats of quite a few Lexuses and SUVs of all stripes."Publishers Weekly
"[Friedman] claims that the most significant events of the 21st century are happening now . . . with technology binding more and more countries together."Library Journal
Review
"Those who look forward to a planet of Wal-Marts and Dells will be charmed. Those who don't well, welcome to the flat world." Kirkus Reviews
Review
"A little more humor might have offset the author's trademark earnestness; still, as he has with other global issues, Friedman brings coherence and a workable plan of action to the fundamental changes our world is experiencing." Booklist (Starred Review)
Review
"This is a provocative, entertaining and instructive book, one that deserves a position of prominence in every library. It deserves an even higher place on the bestseller list." Denver Post
Review
"Friedman can sometimes sound like a technological determinist. And while he does acknowledge political factors, they get little space in the book, which gives it a lopsided feel." Fareed Zakaria, The New York Times Book Review
Review
"Like its predecessor, this book showcases Friedman's gift for lucid dissections of abstruse economic phenomena, his teacher's head, his preacher's heart, his genius for trend-spotting....We've no real idea how the 21st century's history will unfold, but this terrifically stimulating book will certainly inspire readers to start thinking it all through." The Washington Post
Review
"There is much in this book to please and provoke thought, but perhaps its over-optimism might be tempered by a tandem reading of Jared Diamond's Collapse." The Oregonian (Portland, OR)
Review
"[A] tantalizing look at the future..." Boston Globe
Review
"Important, provocative and infuriating....After years consorting with CEOs at such events as the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Friedman seems to have become a captive of their world." Los Angeles Times
Review
"Wide-ranging, lively and readable....The World Is Flat is a real book, not simply a compilation of columns. Many readers will enjoy its engaging descriptions of current and future directions in the global economy." Minneapolis Star Tribune
Review
"Friedman writes so well that even the technologically challenged will enjoy and learn much from this book. Unlike many who study these issues, Friedman never loses his sense of wonder, and that makes him a fine companion for exploring the flattened world." Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Synopsis
When scholars write the history of the world twenty years from now, and they come to the chapter "Y2K to March 2004," what will they say was the most crucial development? The attacks on the World Trade Center on 9/11 and the Iraq war? Or the convergence of technology and events that allowed India, China, and so many other countries to become part of the global supply chain for services and manufacturing, creating an explosion of wealth in the middle classes of the world's two biggest nations, giving them a huge new stake in the success of globalization? And with this "flattening" of the globe, which requires us to run faster in order to stay in place, has the world gotten too small and too fast for human beings and their political systems to adjust in a stable manner?
In this brilliant new book, the award-winning New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman demystifies the brave new world for readers, allowing them to make sense of the often bewildering global scene unfolding before their eyes. With his inimitable ability to translate complex foreign policy and economic issues, Friedman explains how the flattening of the world happened at the dawn of the twenty-first century; what it means to countries, companies, communities, and individuals; and how governments and societies can, and must, adapt. The World Is Flat is the timely and essential update on globalization, its successes and discontents, powerfully illuminated by one of our most respected journalists.
Synopsis
The World Is Flat is Thomas L. Friedman's account of the great changes taking place in our time, as lightning-swift advances in technology and communications put people all over the globe in touch as never before--creating an explosion of wealth in India and China, and challenging the rest of us to run even faster just to stay in place. This updated and expanded edition features more than a hundred pages of fresh reporting and commentary, drawn from Friedman's travels around the world and across the American heartland--from anyplace where the flattening of the world is being felt.
In The World Is Flat, Friedman at once shows "how and why globalization has now shifted into warp drive" (Robert Wright, Slate) and brilliantly demystifies the new flat world for readers, allowing them to make sense of the often bewildering scene unfolding before their eyes. With his inimitable ability to translate complex foreign policy and economic issues, he explains how the flattening of the world happened at the dawn of the twenty-first century; what it means to countries, companies, communities, and individuals; how governments and societies can, and must, adapt; and why terrorists want to stand in the way. More than ever, The World Is Flat is an essential update on globalization, its successes and discontents, powerfully illuminated by one of our most respected journalists.
Synopsis
"One mark of a great book is that it makes you see things in a new way, and Mr. Friedman certainly succeeds in that goal," the Nobel laureate Joseph E. Stiglitz wrote in
The New York Times, reviewing
The World Is Flat in 2005. For this updated and expanded edition, Friedman has seen his own book in a new way, bringing fresh stories and insights to help us understand the flattening of the world. New material includes:
• The reasons why the flattening of the world "will be seen in time as one of those fundamental shifts or inflection points, like Gutenberg's invention of the printing press, the rise of the nation-state, or the Industrial Revolution"
• An explanation of "uploading" as one of the ten forces that are flattening the world, as blogging, open-source software, pooled knowledge projects like Wikipedia, and podcasting enable individuals to bring their experiences and opinions to the whole world
• A mapping of the New Middle--the places and spaces in the flat world where
middle-class jobs will be found--and portraits of the character types who will find success as New Middlers
•An account of the qualities American parents and teachers need to cultivate in young people so that they will be able to thrive in the flat world
•A call for a government-led "geo-green" strategy to preserve the environment and natural resources
•An account of the "globalization of the local": how the flattening of the world is actually strengthening local and regional identities rather than homogenizing the world
Synopsis
The World Is Flat is Thomas L. Friedman's account of the great changes taking place in our time, as lightning-swift advances in technology and communications put people all over the globe in touch as never before--creating an explosion of wealth in India and China, and challenging the rest of us to run even faster just to stay in place. This updated and expanded edition features more than a hundred pages of fresh reporting and commentary, drawn from Friedman's travels around the world and across the American heartland--from anyplace where the flattening of the world is being felt.
In The World Is Flat, Friedman at once shows how and why globalization has now shifted into warp drive (Robert Wright, Slate) and brilliantly demystifies the new flat world for readers, allowing them to make sense of the often bewildering scene unfolding before their eyes. With his inimitable ability to translate complex foreign policy and economic issues, he explains how the flattening of the world happened at the dawn of the twenty-first century; what it means to countries, companies, communities, and individuals; how governments and societies can, and must, adapt; and why terrorists want to stand in the way. More than ever, The World Is Flat is an essential update on globalization, its successes and discontents, powerfully illuminated by one of our most respected journalists. Thomas L. Friedman has won the Pulitzer Prize three times for his work at The New York Times. He is the author of three best-selling books: From Beirut to Jerusalem, winner of the National Book Award for nonfiction and still considered to be the definitive work on the Middle East, The Lexus and the Olive Tree: Understanding Globalization, and Longitudes and Attitudes: Exploring the World After September 11. He lives in Bethesda, Maryland, with his family. Winner of the Financial Times/Goldman Sachs Book Award
A New York Times Notable Book
A Christian Science Monitor Best Book of the Year
A Washington Post Best Book of the Year
An Economist Best Book of the Year
When scholars write the history of the world twenty years from now, and they come to the chapter Y2K to March 2004, what will they say was the most crucial development? The attacks on the World Trade Center on 9/11 and the Iraq war? Or the convergence of technology and events that allowed India, China, and so many other countries to become part of the global supply chain for services and manufacturing, creating an explosion of wealth in the middle classes of the world's two biggest nations, giving them a huge new stake in the success of globalization? And with this flattening of the globe, which requires us to run faster in order to stay in place, has the world gotten too small and too fast for human beings and their political systems to adjust in a stable manner?
In this brilliant new book, the award-winning New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman demystifies the brave new world for readers, allowing them to make sense of the often bewildering global scene unfolding before their eyes. With his inimitable ability to translate complex foreign policy and economic issues, Friedman explains how the flattening of the world happened at the dawn of the twenty-first century; what it means to countries, companies, communities, and individuals; and how governments and societies can, and must, adapt. The World Is Flat is the timely and essential update on globalization, its successes and discontents, powerfully illuminated by one of our most respected journalists. This updated and expanded edition of Friedman's 2005 bestseller features a hundred new pages of fresh reporting, insights, and commentary, drawn both from his 2005 travels (to India, to China, to the Middle East) and from his encounters with readers around the country, who have shared their accounts of the flattening of the world as it is being felt in the American heartland. Among the topics covered are: - An explanation of Friedman's conviction that the flattening of the world will be seen in time as one of those fundamental shifts or inflection points, like Gutenberg's invention of the printing press, the rise of the nation-state, or the Industrial Revolution. (Chapter 1) - A preview of the emerging Business Web, in which companies rent software at websites like Salesforce.com and have it customized to their needs instead of developing proprietary software and employing a tech department to install it--a huge savings in cost and effort. (Chapter 2) - An explanation of uploading as one of the ten forces that are flattening the world. Uploading--blogging, open-source software, pooled knowledge projects like Wikipedia, and now podcasting--enables individuals to bring their experiences and opinions to the whole world more quickly, cheaply, and easily than ever before. (Chapter 2) - A definitive explanation of the triple convergence, in which the flattening of the world has knocked out first the walls, then the ceilings, and now the floors that defined the world as it was before the Wall came down and the flattening began (Chapter 3); and a deeper, sharper explanation of how the move from a vertically organized world to a horizontally organized one will force a great sorting out of our values and priorities. (Chapter 4) - A mapping of what Friedman calls the New Middle--the places and spaces in the flat world where middle-class jobs will be found--and an account of the character types who will thrive as New Middler: collaboration and orchestrators; synthesizers, who blend knowledge across disciplines; explainers, who interpret the tide of new knowledge; leveragers, who can create value from it; adapters, who can move from one New Middle job to the next in the flat world. (Chapter 6) - A chapter-long account of The Right Stuff--the qualities American parents and teachers need to cultivate in American young people so that they will be able to thrive in the flat world: the right education, passion and curiosity (CQ, or curiosity quotient, will be more important than IQ); and the ability to play well with others. (Chapter 7) - The amazing story of how President Bush shunned a meeting of leading technologists in the very office building where he was holding a meeting on privatization of Social Security--a story that exemplifies all the misplaced priorities and bungled opportunities of this Administration. (Chapter 8) - The story of Ireland's swift rise from poverty to prosperity as it made the right moves to adapt to the flattening of the world. (Chapter 9) - A call for a government-led geo-green strategy to preserve the earth's environment and natural resources as the entry of billions of people into the middle class in China and India creates huge increases in demand for cars, fuel, water, and the like. - A chapter-length explanation of The Globalization of the Local: of the ways the flattening of the world, and globalization generally, have affected local and regional culture--actually strengthening local and regional identity rather than homogenizing the world American style. (Chapter 13) And additional topics such as Indians tutoring American students online, of trade pacts being concluded through videoconferencing on flat-screen TVS, and of Google search engine optimizers and versatilists. Updated and Expanded Edition The World Is Flat continues the franchise Friedman has made for himself as a great explicator of and cheerleader for globalization, building upon his 1999 The Lexus and the Olive Tree. Like its predecessor, this book showcases Friedman's gift for lucid dissections of abstruse economic phenomena, his teacher's head, his preacher's heart, his genius for trend-spotting . . . This book] also shares some of the earlier volume's excitement (mirroring Rajesh Rao's) and hesitations about whether we're still living in an era dominated by old-fashioned states or in a postmodern, globalized era where states matter far less and the principal engine of change is a leveled playing field for international trade.--Warren Bass, The Washington Post An] exciting and very readable account of globalization . . . Friedman] provides a compelling case that something big is going on . . . One mark of a great book is that it makes you see things in a new way, and Mr. Friedman certainly succeeds in that goal . . . In his provocative account, Mr. Friedman suggests what this brave new world will mean to all of us, in both the developed and the developing worlds.--Joseph E. Stiglitz, The New York Times
The World Is Flat continues the franchise Friedman has made for himself as a great explicator of and cheerleader for globalization, building upon his 1999 The Lexus and the Olive Tree. Like its predecessor, this book showcases Friedman's gift for lucid dissections of abstruse economic phenomena, his teacher's head, his preacher's heart, his genius for trend-spotting . . . This book] also shares some of the earlier volume's excitement (mirroring Rajesh Rao's) and hesitations about whether we're still living in an era dominated by old-fashioned states or in a postmodern, globalized era where states matter far less and the principal engine of change is a leveled playing field for international trade.--Warren Bass, The Washington Post
Nicely sums up the explosion of digital-technology advances during the past 15 years and places the phenomenon in its global context . . . Friedman] never shrinks from the biggest problems and the thorniest issues . . . Ambitious.--Paul Mangnusson, BusinessWeek
Excellent . . . This book's] insight is true and deeply important . . . The metaphor of a flat world, used by Friedman to describe the next phase of globalization, is ingenious . . . The book is done in Friedman's trademark style. You travel with him, meet his wife and kids, learn about his friends and sit in on his interviews . . . This method] w
Synopsis
The World Is Flat is Thomas L. Friedman's account of the great changes taking place in our time, as lightning-swift advances in technology and communications put people all over the globe in touch as never before--creating an explosion of wealth in India and China, and challenging the rest of us to run even faster just to stay in place. This updated and expanded edition features more than a hundred pages of fresh reporting and commentary, drawn from Friedman's travels around the world and across the American heartland--from anyplace where the flattening of the world is being felt.
In The World Is Flat, Friedman at once shows how and why globalization has now shifted into warp drive (Robert Wright, Slate) and brilliantly demystifies the new flat world for readers, allowing them to make sense of the often bewildering scene unfolding before their eyes. With his inimitable ability to translate complex foreign policy and economic issues, he explains how the flattening of the world happened at the dawn of the twenty-first century; what it means to countries, companies, communities, and individuals; how governments and societies can, and must, adapt; and why terrorists want to stand in the way. More than ever, The World Is Flat is an essential update on globalization, its successes and discontents, powerfully illuminated by one of our most respected journalists. Thomas L. Friedman has won the Pulitzer Prize three times for his work at The New York Times. He is the author of three best-selling books: From Beirut to Jerusalem, winner of the National Book Award for nonfiction and still considered to be the definitive work on the Middle East, The Lexus and the Olive Tree: Understanding Globalization, and Longitudes and Attitudes: Exploring the World After September 11. He lives in Bethesda, Maryland, with his family. Winner of the Financial Times/Goldman Sachs Book Award
A New York Times Notable Book
A Christian Science Monitor Best Book of the Year
A Washington Post Best Book of the Year
An Economist Best Book of the Year
When scholars write the history of the world twenty years from now, and they come to the chapter Y2K to March 2004, what will they say was the most crucial development? The attacks on the World Trade Center on 9/11 and the Iraq war? Or the convergence of technology and events that allowed India, China, and so many other countries to become part of the global supply chain for services and manufacturing, creating an explosion of wealth in the middle classes of the world's two biggest nations, giving them a huge new stake in the success of globalization? And with this flattening of the globe, which requires us to run faster in order to stay in place, has the world gotten too small and too fast for human beings and their political systems to adjust in a stable manner?
In this brilliant new book, the award-winning New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman demystifies the brave new world for readers, allowing them to make sense of the often bewildering global scene unfolding before their eyes. With his inimitable ability to translate complex foreign policy and economic issues, Friedman explains how the flattening of the world happened at the dawn of the twenty-first century; what it means to countries, companies, communities, and individuals; and how governments and societies can, and must, adapt. The World Is Flat is the timely and essential update on globalization, its successes and discontents, powerfully illuminated by one of our most respected journalists. This updated and expanded edition of Friedman's 2005 bestseller features a hundred new pages of fresh reporting, insights, and commentary, drawn both from his 2005 travels (to India, to China, to the Middle East) and from his encounters with readers around the country, who have shared their accounts of the flattening of the world as it is being felt in the American heartland. Among the topics covered are: - An explanation of Friedman's conviction that the flattening of the world will be seen in time as one of those fundamental shifts or inflection points, like Gutenberg's invention of the printing press, the rise of the nation-state, or the Industrial Revolution. (Chapter 1) - A preview of the emerging Business Web, in which companies rent software at websites like Salesforce.com and have it customized to their needs instead of developing proprietary software and employing a tech department to install it--a huge savings in cost and effort. (Chapter 2) - An explanation of uploading as one of the ten forces that are flattening the world. Uploading--blogging, open-source software, pooled knowledge projects like Wikipedia, and now podcasting--enables individuals to bring their experiences and opinions to the whole world more quickly, cheaply, and easily than ever before. (Chapter 2) - A definitive explanation of the triple convergence, in which the flattening of the world has knocked out first the walls, then the ceilings, and now the floors that defined the world as it was before the Wall came down and the flattening began (Chapter 3); and a deeper, sharper explanation of how the move from a vertically organized world to a horizontally organized one will force a great sorting out of our values and priorities. (Chapter 4) - A mapping of what Friedman calls the New Middle--the places and spaces in the flat world where middle-class jobs will be found--and an account of the character types who will thrive as New Middler: collaboration and orchestrators; synthesizers, who blend knowledge across disciplines; explainers, who interpret the tide of new knowledge; leveragers, who can create value from it; adapters, who can move from one New Middle job to the next in the flat world. (Chapter 6) - A chapter-long account of The Right Stuff--the qualities American parents and teachers need to cultivate in American young people so that they will be able to thrive in the
Synopsis
“One mark of a great book is that it makes you see things in a new way, and Mr. Friedman certainly succeeds in that goal,” the Nobel laureate Joseph E. Stiglitz wrote in
The New York Times, reviewing
The World is Flat in 2005. With his inimitable ability to translate complex foreign policy and economic issues, Friedman brilliantly demystifies the new flat world for listeners, making sense of the advances in technology and communications that challenge us to run even faster just to stay in place. For these updated and expanded editions, Friedman has added more hours of commentary, fresh stories and insights. New material includes:
• The reasons the flattening of the world “will be seen in time as one of those fundamental shifts or inflection points, like the invention of the printing press, the rise of the nation-state, or the Industrial Revolution”
• A mapping of the New Middle—the places and spaces in the flat world where middle-class jobs will be found—and portraits of the character types who will find success as New Middlers
• An account of the qualities American parents and teachers need to cultivate in young people so that they will be able to thrive in the flat world
• An account of the “globalization of the local”: how the flattening of the world is actually strengthening local and regional identities rather than homogenizing the world
More than ever, The World Is Flat is an essential update on globalization, its successes and discontents, powerfully illuminated by one of our most respected journalists.
Synopsis
"One mark of a great book is that it makes you see things in a new way, and Mr. Friedman certainly succeeds in that goal," the Nobel laureate Joseph E. Stiglitz wrote in
The New York Times, reviewing
The World is Flat in 2005. With his inimitable ability to translate complex foreign policy and economic issues, Friedman brilliantly demystifies the new flat world for listeners, making sense of the advances in technology and communications that challenge us to run even faster just to stay in place. For these updated and expanded editions, Friedman has added more hours of commentary, fresh stories and insights. New material includes:
• The reasons the flattening of the world "will be seen in time as one of those fundamental shifts or inflection points, like the invention of the printing press, the rise of the nation-state, or the Industrial Revolution"
• A mapping of the New Middle--the places and spaces in the flat world where middle-class jobs will be found--and portraits of the character types who will find success as New Middlers
• An account of the qualities American parents and teachers need to cultivate in young people so that they will be able to thrive in the flat world
• An account of the "globalization of the local": how the flattening of the world is actually strengthening local and regional identities rather than homogenizing the world
More than ever, The World Is Flat is an essential update on globalization, its successes and discontents, powerfully illuminated by one of our most respected journalists.
About the Author
Thomas L. Friedman has won the Pulitzer Prize three times for his work at
The New York Times, where he serves as the foreign affairs columnist. He is the author of three previous books, all of them bestsellers:
From Beirut to Jerusalem, winner of the National Book Award for nonfiction;
The Lexus and the Olive Tree: Understanding Globalization; and
Longitudes and Attitudes: Exploring the World After September 11. In 2005
The World Is Flat was given the first Financial Times and Goldman Sachs Business Book of the Year Award, and Friedman was named one of America's Best Leaders by
U.S. News & World Report. He lives in Bethesda, Maryland, with his family.