The World Is Flat?: A Critical Analysis of New York Times Bestseller by Thomas Friedman (Paperback)

~ Ronald Aronica (Author), Mtetwa Ramdoo (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Globalization is the greatest reorganization of the world since the Industrial Revolution, and is threatening to hollow out America's middle class.
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Millions of Americans are preoccupied with the outsourcing of American jobs and the threat of global economic competition. From boardrooms to classrooms to kitchen tables and water coolers, globalization has become a hot topic of discussion and debate everywhere --including a best-selling book by a famous journalist. However, Thomas Friedman's runaway bestseller, The World is Flat, is dangerous. Friedman makes "arguments by assertion," assertions based not on documented facts, but on stories from friends and elite CEOs he visits --not even one footnote reference. Yet his book influences business and government leaders around the globe. By what it leaves out, it does nothing more than misinform the American people and our leaders.

Aronica and Ramdoo show that the world isn't flat; it's tilted in favor of unfettered global corporations that exploit cheap labor in China, India and beyond. This concise monograph brings clarity to many of Friedman's misconceptions, and explores nine key issues that Friedman largely ignores, including the hollowing out of America's debt-ridden middle class. To create a fair and balanced exploration of globalization, the authors cite the work of experts that Friedman fails to incorporate, including Nobel laureate and former Chief Economist at the World Bank, Dr. Joseph Stiglitz.

Refreshingly, you can now gain new insights into globalization without weeding through Friedman's almost 600 pages of ill-informed, grandiloquent prose and bafflegab.

About the Author

RONALD ARONICA is a business analyst and consultant to business and governmental organizations. In his writings, including the book, The Death of 'e' and the Birth of the Real New Economy, he uses his more than thirty years experience to help readers separate hype from reality.

MTETWA "TET" RAMDOO is an independent business research analyst. She focuses on the impact of globalization on various industries, and the overall impact of globalization on business and social transformation.

Product Details

• Paperback: 132 pages
• Publisher: Meghan-Kiffer Press (August 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0929652045
• ISBN-13: 978-0929652047
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.4 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (25 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #491,903 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

62 of 69 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Personal attacks and sarcasm, September 9, 2007

By	Midwest David - See all my reviews

This book is simply awful. There is plenty to criticize about Friedman's The World is Flat, but this book is so poorly written with so few specific points that I can't recommend it to anyone.

The book does help make it clear that many critics of globalization have a problem with corporations driving the process, not with globalization itself. It also mentions many other books, probably all of which are better than this one. I'll give it two stars for that, but I'm being generous. Don't read this book.

I've just started reading Stiglitz's Making Globalization Work. Read that book instead. Specific criticisms of globalization followed by specific recommendations to fix the problems. You'll find neither in The World is Flat? You will literally learn more about globalization by reading Wikipedia's page on the topic (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Globalization) than you will by reading this book.

Specific complaints:

First, much of the book consists of personal attacks against Friedman. For example, they spend time discussing a *rumor* that he has clothes FedExed to him while his travels. So what? Actually, that sounds like a great idea if you have the money.

Second, much of what they criticize is really quite petty. For example, Friedman spells "workflow software" as "work flow software". Half a page gets devoted to that extra space.

Third, several pages of the book are devoted to comments off of Amazon's customer review sections. So you find out some people don't like his book. Amazon tells me that for free.

Fourth, pointless sarcasm appears on nearly every page. For example, on page 58 we find out that, "Seldom has there appeared such a superficial treatment of Ricardo's 'comparative advantage,' that is, except perhaps in some 11th grade civics class."

In short, the entire book is Amazon and Wikipedia quotes, strung together with personal attacks and sarcasm. Even the valid criticisms of Friedman's work are rarely followed by anything useful, like a discussion of alternative viewpoints. Read Stiglitz or Wikipedia instead of this book.

64 of 76 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Launching pad for truly understanding globalization, February 3, 2007

By	A Reader from Chicago (Windy City) - See all my reviews

This book is not, and does not pretend to be, a complete treatment of the subject of globalization. Instead it provides an antidote for those who were awed by Friedman's bafflegab: story after story and arguments by assertion. Friedman gives average readers a false sense that they are gaining a true understanding of the broad and complex subject of globalization.

This terse monograph dismantles Friedman's arguments. But there's more here besides a critical analysis of Friedman's Flat. Aronica and Ramdoo go on to introduce 9 major issues that Friedman ignores or treats superficially. Friedman has done a great job of getting millions of people to think about globalization, but this book issues a wake up call to "think again." After all, globalization is so important to all of us that we need to become more fully informed, not misinformed by story after story spun from meeting Friedman's daughter's friend's boyfriend at Yale, or playing golf with rich and famous corporate executives. All this with nary a footnote reference to substantiate Friedman's arguments by unsupported assertions.

What I especially liked is that Aronica and Ramdoo provide a roadmap that includes readings of true experts on globalization (Stiglitz, Prestowitz, Baghwati) and a comprehensive collection of resources (from short articles to full essays and videos) at the books web site mkpress [dot] com/flat. I find myself visiting that site when I get a few minutes and want to gain more insight into globalization and what it portends. For example, Friedman preaches on and on about the U.S. needing more and more education in science and technology to compete, but at the site there's a short revealing piece, "Flattening the Great Education Myth," by David Sirota, that makes you do a double take.

So, don't look to this 132 page book to be the ultimate manifesto on globalization. It's not and in no way claims to be. But do look to this book to be the concise roadmap for coming to grips with the greatest issue of our times. The authors are optimistic about globalization and its potential to contribute to people around the world, but not so optimistic about the cheerleading Friedman does for a specific form of globalization called "corporate globalization" where transnational corporations go the ends of the earth seeking labor earning slave-level wages, lax environmental regulations, and tax avoidance. Yes, there's a darker side of unfettered corporate globalization you won't see in Friedman's cheerleading. Because, as Aronica and Ramdoo write, "globalization is the greatest reorganization of the world since the Industrial Revolution," we all need to understand both sides of the globalization coin. Labor and even democracy just could hang in the balance.

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good Counter Balance to Friedman, July 6, 2007

By	Casey McClure (Nashville, TN) - See all my reviews

The World is Flat?

Really, did you know that? Well, from a geometric point of view, the world is not really flat. But, from almost every other point of view (travel, political, vocational, industrial, environmental, etc...) the world is either flat or becoming flat. When I say the world is flat or becoming flat, what I really mean is the world is in theory becoming smaller. At least, this is the argument presented in Thomas Friedman's book "The World is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century" and also in the Ronald Aronica and Mtetwa Ramdoo book "The World is Flat?: A Critical Analysis of New York Times Bestseller by Thomas Friedman".

Basically, what Friedman asserts is that with the rate technology is advancing, the world is getting smaller. Technology enables individuals and small companies to act like or have a presence similar to large companies and vice versa. Jobs are constantly migrating, mostly from the United States to somewhere overseas and the U.S. has the constant challenge of trying to stay ahead of the "pack" of other nations that are giving chase for their piece of the global pie. He claims the U.S. has all the resources to meet the challenges associated with the ever changing and shrinking "flat world" but that we are lagging behind the rest of the developed world in pretty much every major area that we need to be excelling in.

From my point of view, in "The World is Flat?" Aronica and Ramdoo do not necessarily disagree with all of what Friedman has observed and written, but they very much disagree with his methods and call into question his research and interview processes. For example, they claim he gathered most of his notes from the elites while in China and India and that he pretty much discounts the less fortunate or the "have nots". Their largest fundamental difference with Friedman is in their basic view of globalization as good or bad. Aronica and Ramdoo claim Friedman is fully supportive of unfettered globalization regardless of the consequences.

Personally, I believe Friedman is a fan of globalization, but I think they go a little too far. Though it is never directly stated in Friedman's book or in Aronica and Ramdoo's book, they make is seem as though Friedman's desire is to see the U.S. without national boundaries and for Americans to be stepping and fetching along with the rest of the world in some sort of "New World Order". Again, neither book comes out and says this, and who knows, maybe Friedman does feel this way.

I believe Friedman's book does a good job of focusing on the positive aspects of globalization (e.g., helping individuals compete with large companies, providing financial stability to people in developing nations) while also cautioning the reader with other things that must be taken into consideration (e.g., vocation training and placement for individuals that have lost jobs to other countries, challenges to national sovereignty).

Again, Aronica and Ramdoo agree with many of Friedman's points but criticize him for not seeing much of this happening earlier on, and for creating new catchy terminology that really means nothing in technology or business circles. They of course have a heavy focus on the negatives of globalization.

If you have invested the time in reading Friedman's 616 pages of "The World is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century" then I would definitely recommend reading Aronica and Ramdoo's "The World is Flat?: A Critical Analysis of New York Times Bestseller by Thomas Friedman". Coming in at 132 pages, it should be a much quicker read. Aronica and Ramdoo tend to focus on the negatives of globalization and offer a good counter balance to the data presented by Friedman. I would especially recommend it in case you are undecided in your own views and want help in forming your own opinion regarding globalization.

One caution, in Friedman's book get ready to read the phrase "the world is flat" and how amazing and scary it is over and over and in Aronica and Ramdoo's book get ready to read various jabs and barbs at Friedman over and over.