The World Is Flat [Updated and Expanded]: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century Review
The World Is Flat bills itself in it subtitle as "a brief history of the twenty-first century." That history is dominated by the combined forces of globalization and technology. PCs, high-speed Internet access, and collaboration software converge to create the flat world platform that allows anyone, anywhere to innovate.
Globalization is a massive force that has widespread implications - socially, politically, economically, and environmentally. Further complicating the issue is that those implications can be drastically different depending on whether a country is developed or developing. Yet, somehow, Friedman tackles these issues in a balanced and detailed narrative that is engaging to read.
The topic is also very much of the present, in that our understanding of globalization and its effects is changing daily. Friedman has done a commendable job of keeping the book (now in release 3.0 as of my reading) updated and relevant. Present day readers will appreciate this effort, while perhaps wishing for an additional update with commentary on the economic downturn encountered during the past two years.
If I have one complaint about this book, it is that it tends to use simple metaphors and anecdotes for what are very complex systems. This technique is used effectively by Friedman to illustrate his points to the reader. However, I also think it leaves a lot of deeper issues either unexplored or underexplored beneath the surface.
These deeper issues include the negative effects that globalization has in social, economic, and environmental realms. While Friedman does acknowledge and address these issues, the analysis of them seems relatively minor compared to the (also acknowledged) pro-globalization stance taken throughout the book as a whole.
Overall, The World Is Flat presents a compelling, if introductory, assessment of globalization that I recommend reading. For readers who find the subject matter interesting, I would encourage independent study of the topics on which the book glances over.
The World Is Flat [Updated and Expanded]: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century Overview
• 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.
The World Is Flat [Updated and Expanded]: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century Specifications
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?
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 |
 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 |
Available at Amazon Check Price Now!
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Customer Reviews
Eye-Opening and Informative - Tonetta Chester -
No one can deny the rapid changes that are occuring in our flat world. In the blink of an eye (which is what a mere decade feels like in comparison to all of the progress made within the last few centuries), the world has become more interconnected than ever. We are closer than ever to giving everyone the resources needed to succeed in our global society.
Why? Friedman opens his book with 10 forces that flattened the world, describing how each has affected the developed world along with the developing world. Organized and informative, this book is a must-read for anyone looking to understand how the forces of the last decade shaped the way businesses and countries operate today. What is particuarly insightful is how Friedman always manages to link the developed world and the developing world, explaining how both can benefit and how both need to change in order to succeed.
Tonetta Chester,
Author of Surviving the Darkest Days
The World is Flat: a Brief History of the Twenty-First Century - CreeWoman -
The World Is Flat 3.0: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century
This is a very interesting read! Also a good one i might add! This book was used for a College Class, and although it was required reading, I was very much impressed with how Mr Friedman wrote this book! It is not boring at all, and for me it was very hard to put down. He intertwines all of his fact searching and interlaces it with what his "voice" is in writing and came up with a VERY good book. So if you want to enjoy what you are reading and at the same time be educated with what is going on in our world today, then this is a MUST! ~:D
Disappointing - rista blodorn -
Several years ago after hearing praise heaped upon Mr. Friedman's work The World is Flat I purchased it and waded through the first hundred pages or so with increasing impatience as I awaited all the earth shattering insights that were said to await me. Well after reading the book I felt more along the lines of having purchased something from someone who demonstrated their firm grasp on the obvious. There are no earth shattering insights here. For anyone living, working or traveling in today's online, e-commerce, outsourced, off-shored world over the last 10-15 years you already know everything that Mr. Friedman seems to be so taken with. I kept asking myself why this all seemed to surprising to Mr. Friedman?
Apparently Mr. Friedman's book is marketed to those who do not get out much. I notice a lot of reviews suggest that the book is "well written". I have no objection to the writing but it did not strike me as being anything more then average. If a sense of "gee isn't all this stuff neat" equates to being well written then Mr. Friedman can consider mission accomplished.
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