From Powells.com
When Thomas Friedman was hired in 1995 as the new foreign affairs columnist for the New York Times, he had already received two Pulitzer Prizes and a National Book Award. Still, it was an exceptional honor. Friedman was only the fifth person in the long history of the paper to hold the post. He has proven more than up to the task. Today, Thomas Friedman is quite possibly the nation's most widely read newspaper columnist. Without question, he is our most influential voice on Middle Eastern affairs. Never was this more apparent than in the weeks and months following September 11, 2001, when millions of Americans turned to Friedman's column for help in sorting out what exactly had just happened, and why. These columns were not only distinguished by Friedman's ability to explain the complexities of Middle Eastern politics in avuncular, easy-to-digest set pieces. No, what made his writing so exceptional was his ability to look deeper than partisan politics in order to reveal the underlying hopes and fears that unite all Americans. For his writing about 9/11, Thomas Friedman received the 2002 Pulitzer Prize for commentary, his third. Longitudes and Attitudes, which collects these Pulitzer Prize winning columns as well as his post-9/11 diary, is more than merely fascinating. For anyone committed to understanding our increasingly confusing world, it is indispensable. Farley, Powells.com
Synopses & Reviews
From the Pulitzer Prizewinning
New York Times columnist and bestselling author of
From Beirut to Jerusalem and
The Lexus and the Olive Tree comes this smart, penetrating, brilliantly informed book that is indispensable for understanding today's radically new world and America's complex place in it.
Thomas L. Freidman received his third Pulitzer Prize in 2002 "for his clarity of vision, based on extensive reporting, in commenting on the worldwide impact of the terrorist threat." In Longitudes and Attitudes he gives us all of the columns he has published about the most momentous news story of our time, as well as a diary of his private experiences and reflections during his postSeptember 11 travels. Updated for this new paperback edition, with over two years' worth of Friedman's columns and an expanded version of his diary, Longitudes and Attitudes is a broadly influential work from our most trusted observer of the international scene.
Review
"To read [Longitudes and Attitudes] is to relive an anguishing year in world history but also to witness a more human-size drama: Through these dispatches, you see a man trying to explain the unthinkable not only to his readers but to himself." Rolling Stone
Synopsis
Longitudes and Attitudes is made up of the columns Friedman has published about September 11, the most momentous news story of our time, as well as a diary of his private experiences and reflections during his reporting on the post-September 11 world, as the author travels from Afghanistan to Israel to Europe to Indonesia to Saudi Arabia.
About the Author
Thomas L. Friedman has won the Pulitzer Prize three times for his work at The New York Times. He is the author of two other bestselling books, From Beirut to Jerusalem, winner of the National Book Award, and The Lexus and the Olive Tree: Understanding Globalization. He lives in Bethesda, Maryland, with his family.