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
- How the World Became Flat
- America and the Flat World
- Developing Countries and the Flat World
- Companies and the Flat World
- Geopolitics and the Flat World
- Conclusion : Imagination
"Excellent...Ingenious...[Friedman makes] complicated ideas accessible....[The World Is Flat's] fundamental insight is true and deeply important"
--Freed Zakaria, The New York Times Book Review [cover review]
"[An] exciting and very readable account of globalization...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...In his provocative account , [he] suggest what this brave new world will mean to all of us."
--Joseph E. Stiglitz,The New York Times