The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century

A new edition of the phenomenal #1 bestseller.

"One mark of a great book is that it makes you see things in a new way, and Mr. Friedman certainly succeeds in that goal," the Nobel laureate Joseph E. Stiglitz wrote in The New York Times reviewing The World Is Flat in 2005. In this new edition, Thomas L. Friedman includes fresh stories and insights to help us understand the flattening of the world. Weaving new information into his overall thesis, and answering the questions he has been most frequently asked by parents across the country, this third edition also includes two new chapters — on how to be a political activist and social entrepreneur in a flat world; and on the more troubling question of how to manage our reputations and privacy in a world where we are all becoming publishers and public figures.

The World Is Flat 3.0 is an essential update on globalization, its opportunities for individual empowerment, its achievements at lifting millions out of poverty, and its drawbacks — environmental, social, and political, powerfully illuminated by the Pulitzer Prize — winning author of The Lexus and the Olive Tree.

"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) " Publishers Weekly (Starred Review) (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)

"Like its predecessor, this book showcases Friedman's gift for lucid dissections of abstruse economic phenomena, his teacher's head, his preacher's heart, his genius for trend-spotting....We've no real idea how the 21st century's history will unfold, but this terrifically stimulating book will certainly inspire readers to start thinking it all through." The Washington Post

"Thomas L. Friedman, three-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize and foreign affairs columnist for the New York Times, offers a tantalizing look at the future in The World Is Flat." Boston Globe

"Those who look forward to a planet of Wal-Marts and Dells will be charmed. Those who don't — well, welcome to the flat world." Kirkus Reviews

"A little more humor might have offset the author's trademark earnestness; still, as he has with other global issues, Friedman brings coherence and a workable plan of action to the fundamental changes our world is experiencing." Booklist (Starred Review)

"This is a provocative, entertaining and instructive book, one that deserves a position of prominence in every library. It deserves an even higher place on the bestseller list." Denver Post

"Friedman can sometimes sound like a technological determinist. And while he does acknowledge political factors, they get little space in the book, which gives it a lopsided feel." Fareed Zakaria, The New York Times Book Review

"There is much in this book to please and provoke thought, but perhaps its over-optimism might be tempered by a tandem reading of Jared Diamond's Collapse." The Oregonian (Portland, OR)

"Important, provocative and infuriating....After years consorting with CEOs at such events as the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Friedman seems to have become a captive of their world." Los Angeles Times

"Wide-ranging, lively and readable....The World Is Flat is a real book, not simply a compilation of columns. Many readers will enjoy its engaging descriptions of current and future directions in the global economy." Minneapolis Star Tribune

"Friedman writes so well that even the technologically challenged will enjoy and learn much from this book. Unlike many who study these issues, Friedman never loses his sense of wonder, and that makes him a fine companion for exploring the flattened world." Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

A New Edition of the Phenomenal #1 Bestseller

One mark of a great book is that it makes you see things in a new way, and Mr. Friedman certainly succeeds in that goal, the Nobel laureate Joseph E. Stiglitz wrote in The New York Times reviewing The World Is Flat in 2005. In this new edition, Thomas L. Friedman includes fresh stories and insights to help us understand the flattening of the world. Weaving new information into his overall thesis, and answering the questions he has been most frequently asked by parents across the country, this third edition also includes two new chapters--on how to be a political activist and social entrepreneur in a flat world; and on the more troubling question of how to manage our reputations and privacy in a world where we are all becoming publishers and public figures.

The World Is Flat 3.0 is an essential update on globalization, its opportunities for individual empowerment, its achievements at lifting millions out of poverty, and its drawbacks--environmental, social, and political, powerfully illuminated by the Pulitzer Prize--winning author of The Lexus and the Olive Tree. Thomas L. Friedman has won the Pulitzer Prize three times for his work at The New York Times. He is the author of three best-selling books: From Beirut to Jerusalem, winner of the National Book Award for nonfiction and still considered to be the definitive work on the Middle East, The Lexus and the Olive Tree: Understanding Globalization, and Longitudes and Attitudes: Exploring the World After September 11. He lives in Bethesda, Maryland, with his family. Winner of the Financial Times/Goldman Sachs Book Award

A New York Times Notable Book

A Christian Science Monitor Best Book of the Year

A Washington Post Best Book of the Year

An Economist Best Book of the Year

When scholars write the history of the world twenty years from now, and they come to the chapter Y2K to March 2004, what will they say was the most crucial development? The attacks on the World Trade Center on 9/11 and the Iraq war? Or the convergence of technology and events that allowed India, China, and so many other countries to become part of the global supply chain for services and manufacturing, creating an explosion of wealth in the middle classes of the world's two biggest nations, giving them a huge new stake in the success of globalization? And with this flattening of the globe, which requires us to run faster in order to stay in place, has the world gotten too small and too fast for human beings and their political systems to adjust in a stable manner?

In this brilliant new book, the award-winning New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman demystifies the brave new world for readers, allowing them to make sense of the often bewildering global scene unfolding before their eyes. With his inimitable ability to translate complex foreign policy and economic issues, Friedman explains how the flattening of the world happened at the dawn of the twenty-first century; what it means to countries, companies, communities, and individuals; and how governments and societies can, and must, adapt. The World Is Flat is the timely and essential update on globalization, its successes and discontents, powerfully illuminated by one of our most respected journalists. This updated and expanded edition of Friedman's 2005 bestseller features a hundred new pages of fresh reporting, insights, and commentary, drawn both from his 2005 travels (to India, to China, to the Middle East) and from his encounters with readers around the country, who have shared their accounts of the flattening of the world as it is being felt in the American heartland. Among the topics covered are: - An explanation of Friedman's conviction that the flattening of the world will be seen in time as one of those fundamental shifts or inflection points, like Gutenberg's invention of the printing press, the rise of the nation-state, or the Industrial Revolution. (Chapter 1) - A preview of the emerging Business Web, in which companies rent software at websites like Salesforce.com and have it customized to their needs instead of developing proprietary software and employing a tech department to install it--a huge savings in cost and effort. (Chapter 2) - An explanation of uploading as one of the ten forces that are flattening the world. Uploading--blogging, open-source software, pooled knowledge projects like Wikipedia, and now podcasting--enables individuals to bring their experiences and opinions to the whole world more quickly, cheaply, and easily than ever before. (Chapter 2) - A definitive explanation of the triple convergence, in which the flattening of the world has knocked out first the walls, then the ceilings, and now the floors that defined the world as it was before the Wall came down and the flattening began (Chapter 3); and a deeper, sharper explanation of how the move from a vertically organized world to a horizontally organized one will force a great sorting out of our values and priorities. (Chapter 4) - A mapping of what Friedman calls the New Middle--the places and spaces in the flat world where middle-class jobs will be found--and an account of the character types who will thrive as New Middler: collaboration and orchestrators; synthesizers, who blend knowledge across disciplines; explainers, who interpret the tide of new knowledge; leveragers, who can create value from it; adapters, who can move from one New Middle job to the next in the flat world. (Chapter 6) - A chapter-long account of The Right Stuff--the qualities American parents and teachers need to cultivate in American young people so that they will be able to thrive in the flat world: the right education, passion and curiosity (CQ, or curiosity quotient, will be more important than IQ); and the ability to play well with others. (Chapter 7) - The amazing story of how President Bush shunned a meeting of leading t

Thomas L. Friedman has won the Pulitzer Prize three times for his work at The New York Times. He is the author of three best-selling books: From Beiruit to Jerusalem (FSG, 1989), winner of the National Book Award for nonfiction and still considered to be the definitive work on the Middle East, The Lexus and the Olive Tree: Understanding Globalization (FSG, 1999), and Longitudes and Attitudes: Exploring the World After September 11 (FSG, 2002). He lives in Bethesda, Maryland, with his family.