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The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century Hardcover – April 5, 2005

4.2 4.2 out of 5 stars 651 ratings

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Editorial Reviews

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Thomas L. Friedman is not so much a futurist, which he is sometimes called, as a presentist. His aim, in his new book, 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 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 tells his eye-opening story with the catchy slogans and globe-hopping anecdotes that readers of his earlier books and his New York Times columns will know well, and also with 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. His book is an excellent place to begin. --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'd happily have peppered him with questions about The World Is Flat for hours. Read our interview 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?")

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)

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ 0374292884
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Farrar, Straus and Giroux; First Edition (April 5, 2005)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 488 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 9780374292881
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0374292881
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 3.53 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.24 x 1.56 x 9.25 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.2 4.2 out of 5 stars 651 ratings

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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.

Customer reviews

4.2 out of 5 stars
4.2 out of 5
651 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Reviewed in the United States on February 2, 2006
14 people found this helpful
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Reviewed in the United States on September 4, 2005
27 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

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CJC
5.0 out of 5 stars Good book, still relevant in 2019
Reviewed in Canada on December 13, 2019
Akwaaba Kitchen
5.0 out of 5 stars N/A
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 20, 2020
SAURABH TIWARI
5.0 out of 5 stars True, today world is really flat.
Reviewed in India on October 17, 2017
MP
5.0 out of 5 stars schule
Reviewed in Germany on March 2, 2013
tetsuya morikawa
5.0 out of 5 stars フラット化する世界を多面的に活き活きと描写
Reviewed in Japan on October 9, 2005
7 people found this helpful
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