Hot, Flat, and Crowded: Why We Need a Green Revolution - and How It Can Renew America, Release 2.0 [Paperback]

Thomas L. Friedman (Author)

Book Description

Release date: November 24, 2009

A New York Times Book Review Notable Book of the Year
A Washington Post Best Book of the Year
A Businessweek Best Business Book of the Year
A Chicago Tribune Best Book of the Year

 

In this brilliant, essential book, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Thomas L. Friedman speaks to America's urgent need for national renewal and explains how a green revolution can bring about both a sustainable environment and a sustainable America.

Friedman explains how global warming, rapidly growing populations, and the expansion of the world’s middle class through globalization have produced a dangerously unstable planet--one that is "hot, flat, and crowded."  In this Release 2.0 edition, he also shows how the very habits that led us to ravage the natural world led to the meltdown of the financial markets and the Great Recession.  The challenge of a sustainable way of life presents the United States with an opportunity not only to rebuild its economy, but to lead the world in radically innovating toward cleaner energy.  And it could inspire Americans to something we haven't seen in a long time--nation-building in America--by summoning the intelligence, creativity, and concern for the common good that are our greatest national resources.

Hot, Flat, and Crowded is classic Thomas L. Friedman: fearless, incisive, forward-looking, and rich in surprising common sense about the challenge--and the promise--of the future.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Friedman produces cogent analyses of the most important developments of our time. . . . A convincing case for the green revolution required to rescue us from an unsustainable course."--USA Today

"Friedman has made himself a major interpreter of the confusing world we inhabit. . . . He gets the big issues right."--The Washington Post Book World

 

"A compelling manifesto that deserves a wide reading, especially by members of Congress."--The Boston Globe

"If Friedman's profile and verve take his message where it needs to be heard, into the boardrooms of America and beyond, that can only be good--for all our sakes."--The New York Times Book Review

 

"Tom Friedman has done it again. . . . He has lit upon what he might describe as another Big Idea, and, given his track record as a zeitgeist thermometer, we should all pay attention. . . . He has a gift for weaving anecdotes and examples from around the world into his broader tapestry."--Financial Times

"Hot, Flat, and Crowded may make it official, for many, that ecology-mindedness is the character of our times. . . . I hope everyone reads it."--The Philadelphia Inquirer

"Required reading"--Business Week

"New York Times columnist and globalization exponent Thomas Friedman pleads for Americans to wake up to the perils and opportunities of an emerging resource-strapped world. The author comes across as a blend of Will Rogers, Jack Welch and Norman Vincent Peale—a plain-spoken citizen outraged at the bullheadedness of U.S. politicians, yet optimistic about the power of ingenuity and finely crafted policy to avert disaster."--Newsweek

About the Author

THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN has been awarded the Pulitzer Prize three times for his work with The New York Times, where he serves as the foreign affairs columnist. He is the author of From Beirut to Jerusalem (1989), The Lexus and the Olive Tree (1999), Longitudes and Attitudes (2002), and The World is Flat (2005). He lives in Bethesda, Maryland.

Product Details

• Paperback: 516 pages
• Publisher: Picador; Revised & enlarged edition (November 24, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312428928
• ISBN-13: 978-0312428921
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.5 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (48 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #24,942 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #12 in Books > Politics & Social Sciences > Politics & Government > Public Affairs & Policy > Environmental Policy
  • #17 in Books > Professional & Technical > Engineering > Energy
  • #30 in Books > Business & Investing > Economics > Environmental Economics

More About the Author

Thomas L. Friedman has been awarded the Pulitzer Prize three times for his work with The New York Times, where he serves as the foreign affairs columnist. Read by everyone from small-business owners to President Obama, Hot, Flat, and Crowded was an international bestseller in hardcover. Friedman is also the author of From Beirut to Jerusalem (1989), The Lexus and the Olive Tree (1999), Longitudes and Attitudes (2002), and The World is Flat (2005). He lives in Bethesda, Maryland.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

31 of 31 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Friedman takes a long walk to make a short but critical point May 28, 2010

By Scott Schiefelbein VINE™ VOICE

Format:Paperback

NY Times columnist Tom Friedman has written some of the more important current events books of the last twenty years. This effort is a spin-off of his (so far) magnum opus, "The World is Flat." In that book, Friedman chronicled the dizzying array of changes that technology, demographics, and the fall of communism have unleashed upon the world. The message - the world has entered a new epoch fueled by instant communication and the mammoth human resources that have been unleashed in India, Latin America, and even Africa. A clear must-read, "TWIF" is an Important Book.

So it was no surprise that Friedman has cranked out a follow-up. In "Hot, Flat and Crowded," Friedman takes the same dynamics that he described in "TWIF" and examines their consequences on our polluted, energy-starved world. What will we do when literally hundreds of millions of people who previously consumed little or no energy (because they were so poor and had no infrastructure) enter the middle class work force thanks to the benefits of technology?

One of the problems Friedman posed in "TWIF" is that Americans who do not fight to stay ahead will be surpassed by ambitious folks from India, China, Latin America, etc. In "HFC," Friedman posits that a Green Energy revolution is the answer - the world is going to be crying out for alternative energy resources and products that encourage smart consumption of energy. If America can take the lead in these areas, our leadership role in the world is assured.

But Friedman sees problems everywhere - rightly so. Our government and economy are addicted to fossil fuels, and nobody is stepping up to take the leadership mantle.

So why only three stars? Well, first thing - Friedman has never been much of a stylist.... The prose is workmanlike, which is fine for a column but gets tedious after a few hundred pages. And the book starts to resemble a piano player playing one note over and over again. This is not a bloated Tom Clancy novel by any means, but one wishes that Friedman could have tightened things up a bit.

But the book is still an important read - because as Friedman points out, our green revolution is most likely to come from the American people (and its entrepreneurs) rather than the political leadership. In that, he is surely right. Read more ›

40 of 44 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars A must-read December 13, 2009

By Martin N. Pettet

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

Tom Friedman's book is a journalistic tour de force. He has been everywhere, it seems, and interviewed everyone who matters in doing his research. With that engaging style we are used to from his columns, he confronts here the biggest issues facing our nation and the planet. The book is essentially in two parts; a diagnosis, and a proposed cure. The first section is one of the most succint summaries that I am aware of what has gone wrong in our civilization over the past fifty years. His equations of financial meltdown with global warming are clever...The second half of the book, however, is very different, though no less impressive in its way; a kind of well-informed optimistic wish list of steps to turn the crisis around. It does, however, as Friedman states himself several times, often sound a bit like science fiction. Everything he suggests, from a 'smart' utility grid, to universal green fiscal incentives, is possible, but you come away from the book feeling that their achievement, on the grand or global scale, is rather like trying to scale Mount Everest with a Segway. Friedman points out plenty of examples of individual pioneers, but that's an entirely different thing to remolding the national consciousness from the inside, which is what he proposes. The book is actually replete with example of the vast entrenched obstacles in the way of getting to where he wants to go. It seems a pity, but after reading this book I actually feel more pessimistic about the possibility of America regenerating itself in the twenty first century.

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Somewhat long-winded, but worth the read. January 9, 2010

By Conrad

Format:Paperback

I picked up all 500+ pages of this book just over two weeks ago, and have been determined to make it to the end. If nothing else, this book is informative, and Friedman has done his homework, having travelled the globe, and interviewed many people, observing new projects as they emerge.
Friedman doesn't veer too much away from traditional economics, and he doesn't present what I would consider a maverick approach. In fact he has often been criticized for presenting a world view that today's problems can be solved by technology. But arguing mainly from this frame of reference, he does bring in a lot of data that supports the view that innovation, namely that which leads to efficiency, is economically profitable. What he doesn't do is suggest that we need to drastically alter our lifestyles, though he does outline the devastating impact of a burgeoning world population on the environment, suggesting that it is education that can decrease the birth rates in third world countries.
Friedman's 'bumper-sticker' formula for success is REEFIGDCPEERPFPCA<TCOBCOG (a renewable energy ecosystem for innovating, generating, and deploying clean power, energy efficiency, resource productivity, family planning, conservation, and adaptation<the true cost of burning coal, oil, and gas)... Yes, didn't I tell you he was long winded? But he has a point about the benefits of moving away from non-renewable resources, which he explains quite well. And he is not too simplistic about how this is to be accomplished; the path ahead of us, he argues, is neither easy nor convenient.
Does he agree with the view that we must adopt a simpler, close-to-nature existence as many environmentalist suggest?... He acknowledges that position, admitting he does not belong to that school of thought, while suggesting that they may yet prove to be correct. But what Friedman proposes is worth hearing. Even those skeptical about global warming may find much to agree with in this book, and the reader would need to be in denial not to be concerned about the impact of a consumer culture on the planet's ecosystem. My own reaction is that Friedman offers some hope. We can be paralyzed by fear or despair, but Friedman, backed up by enormous amounts of research, brings into focus some steps that need to be taken. Nobody has all the answers to the world's problems, but Friedman has some, and they are worth hearing. Read more ›