Product Description

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #140 in Books
• Published on: 2007-08-07
• Released on: 2007-07-24
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 672 pages

Amazon.com
Updated Edition: Thomas L. Friedman is not so much a futurist, which he is sometimes called, as a presentist. His aim in The World Is Flat, as in his earlier, influential Lexus and the Olive Tree, is not to give you a speculative preview of the wonders that are sure to come in your lifetime, but rather to get you caught up on the wonders that are already here. The world isn't going to be flat, it is flat, which gives Friedman's breathless narrative much of its urgency, and which also saves it from the Epcot-style polyester sheen that futurists--the optimistic ones at least--are inevitably prey to.

What Friedman means by "flat" is "connected": the lowering of trade and political barriers and the exponential technical advances of the digital revolution that have made it possible to do business, or almost anything else, instantaneously with billions of other people across the planet. This in itself should not be news to anyone. But the news that Friedman has to deliver is that just when we stopped paying attention to these developments--when the dot-com bust turned interest away from the business and technology pages and when 9/11 and the Iraq War turned all eyes toward the Middle East--is when they actually began to accelerate. Globalization 3.0, as he calls it, is driven not by major corporations or giant trade organizations like the World Bank, but by individuals: desktop freelancers and innovative startups all over the world (but especially in India and China) who can compete--and win--not just for low-wage manufacturing and information labor but, increasingly, for the highest-end research and design work as well. (He doesn't forget the "mutant supply chains" like Al-Qaeda that let the small act big in more destructive ways.)

Friedman has embraced this flat world in his own work, continuing to report on his story after his book's release and releasing an unprecedented hardcover update of the book a year later with 100 pages of revised and expanded material. What's changed in a year? Some of the sections that opened eyes in the first edition--on China and India, for example, and the global supply chain--are largely unaltered. Instead, Friedman has more to say about what he now calls "uploading," the direct-from-the-bottom creation of culture, knowledge, and innovation through blogging, podcasts, and open-source software. And in response to the pleas of many of his readers about how to survive the new flat world, he makes specific recommendations about the technical and creative training he thinks will be required to compete in the "New Middle" class. As before, Friedman tells his story with the catchy slogans and globe-hopping anecdotes that readers of his earlier books and his New York Times columns know well, and he holds to a stern sort of optimism. He wants to tell you how exciting this new world is, but he also wants you to know you're going to be trampled if you don't keep up with it. A year later, one can sense his rising impatience that our popular culture, and our political leaders, are not helping us keep pace. --Tom Nissley

Where Were You When the World Went Flat?

Thomas L. Friedman's reporter's curiosity and his ability to recognize the patterns behind the most complex global developments have made him one of the most entertaining and authoritative sources for information about the wider world we live in, both as the foreign affairs columnist for the New York Times and as the author of landmark books like From Beirut to Jerusalem and The Lexus and the Olive Tree. They also make him an endlessly fascinating conversation partner, and we've now had the chance to talk to him about The World Is Flat twice. Read our original interview with him following the publication of the first edition of The World Is Flat to learn why there's almost no one from Washington, D.C., listed in the index of a book about the global economy, and what his one-plank platform for president would be. (Hint: his bumper stickers would say, "Can You Hear Me Now?")

And now you can listen to our second interview, in which he talks about the updates he's made in "The World Is Flat 2.0," including his response to parents who said to him, "Great, Mr. Friedman, I'm glad you told us the world is flat. Now what do I tell my kids?"

The Essential Tom Friedman

From Beirut to Jerusalem

The Lexus and the Olive Tree

Longitudes and Attitudes

More on Globalization and Development

China, Inc. by Ted Fishman	Three Billion New Capitalists by Clyde Prestowitz	The End of Poverty by Jeffrey Sachs
Globalization and Its Discontents by Joseph Stiglitz	The Travels of a T-Shirt in the Global Economy by Pietra Rivoli	The Mystery of Capital by Hernando de Soto

From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. 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." This is all familiar stuff by now, but the 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. (Apr. 5)

From School Library Journal
Adult/High School–This brilliantly paced, articulate, and accessible explanation of today's world is an ideal title for tech-savvy teens. Friedman's thesis is that connectedness by computer is leveling the playing field, giving individuals the ability to collaborate and compete in real time on a global scale. While the author is optimistic about the future, seeing progress in every field from architecture to zoology, he is aware that terrorists are also using computers to attack the very trends that make progress plausible and reasonable. This is a smart and essential read for those who will be expected to live and work in this new global environment.–Alan Gropman, National Defense University, Washington, DC
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Customer Reviews

Despite of the weaknesses of this book, it still offers many point of view in enhancing our global perspective
Like it or not, this book has helped dilate our global perspective. I personally say "YES" to many of his thoughts in this book. Though it sounds too idealistic, demographically, I still agree that one day, the environmental health threats of "megacity" due to the demography shift will be reduced significantly. This is because people do not need to migrate for a better place to live. This very fast globalization process have made our world very close to be homogeneous, in term of internet technology, telecommunication, travel facilities, etc - that makes people feel comfortable with where they belong to live at.

Individually, people have been yearning to get out from the pain of "dehumanization process" due to the excessive demand of life. People in the more developed countries (MDC) have to work more for the bills than for the family. Majority of us are bound to pay the mortgage, credit cards, student loan and other debts -even though physically it seems that we are happier with all the fancy facilities we have in comparison with what people in the less developed countries (LDCs) have. We, in our MDC wants more than what we need. It is about time for us to response to the higher call of life as to live in a "homesotasis" state of life - non excessive nor lack of.

I remember long long time ago when I was still live in my birth country (less developed country), many of people in my country as well other people from the less developed countries, would dream and do anything to come to this country with honey and milk. Now, the paradigm is significantly shifted in opposite ways. People from more developed countries would love to demographically shift to the third world country (bringing their early retirement money) for cheaper living expenses and less demanding lifestyle.

In corporate point of view, opportunity to utilize cheaper labors with same quality from India, China, and other places have helped this process of flatting the world. We must admit our surprise of all the numerical figures presented by this book from cost efficiency, telemarketing outside our country, how many of our taxes and billing system have been taken care from India, etc.

Many more to says, but one thing I would like to emphasize as my personal conclusion is that we are alarming by this book to be ready for this process of the flattening of the world in many arenas of our life.

Julie Kiler, CA

Great Book
This is a great book to read. it talks all about what is happening at present and its impact on our future. i tells how to prepare american and world society for the future. really inspiring...!

Why The World Is Shrinking And Why That Is A Good Thing
With information moving at the speed of light and a huge transportation network connecting virtually any dots in the planet, Thomas Friedman provides a clever insight into globalization. In short it means that a service or a product should be produced wherever it's most efficient that the whole world benefits from that. Of course, there are some adjustments necessary as this puts a lot of forces and pressures for capital, market and job shifts. One caveat though - and not explored in the book - is that globalization of products relies on a cheap source of transportation energy. With oil prices climbing really fast, either a competitive alternative is found, or the globalization of products may be compromised. Highly recommended for the insight and entertainment of thought.