Thomas L. Friedman: The World Is Flat
So I finally came to read Friedman’s famous book. Another book about globalization, my sarcastic self had to laugh after realizing that I bought it for a flight back from America to Europa. If you know me, you’d might as why it took almost 1.5 months to complete that book (highly unlikely for me) and I’d respond:
- I’ve been tremendously busy
- The book is not as great as I hoped
As usual the truth lies in between. It is a good introduction into the whole ‘globalization to save civilization from another world war’- and ‘empowerment of the poor’ thing, but wasn’t quite as deep-going as I hoped it would. Its 640 pages are filed with repetitions of examples how the ‘flat world’ did help people while entrenched living spoils life. The problem is, that most of it could have been said in 200 pages to make a great and in even fewer to make an really outstanding book.
Also claims are mostly presented through examples and seldomly prooven. For an example the chapter about ecological impacts of globalization was quite shallow, a short ten minute talk with a friend of mine (Eva, who blogs around here) brought more understanding.
Also it gets a bit populist from times to times.
But as an (alas long) introduction it is very suitable. For people (like me) that believe in capitalism and globalization bringing freedom and need some reinforcement in it I’d rather recommend the other Friedman’s (Milton) ‘Capitalism and Freedom’.
No related posts.
I would much rather the discourse on Globalization came from economists like Joesph Stiglitz (Nobel winner for economics and was Chief Economist at World Bank), Paul Krugman (Princeton), Pankaj Ghemawat (Harvard)etc. Ted Koppel interviews Friedman and Joseph Stiglitz, who ofcourse doesnt find a mention in Friedman’s book.
http://select.nytimes.com/2006/04/25/opinion/25friedman-transcript.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all&oref=slogin
Two books to read, which offer a counterperspective to Friedman’s “The World is Flat.”
The Harvard Professor, Pankaj Ghemawat’s latest book, “Redefining Global Strategy,” is more academically inclined. I read an article of his published in the journal, “Foreign Policy”, where he argues that the world is, at best, only semi-globalized. His argument being that Cultural, Administrative, Geographic and Economic aspects of a nation come in the way of total globalization from taking place and cites examples of the same.
The other small, but interesting book, is by Aronica and Ramdoo, “The World is Flat? A Critical Analysis of Thomas Friedman’s New York Times Bestseller.” It is a small book compared to the 600 page tome by Friedman, and aimed at the common man and students alike. As popular as the book may be, some reviewers assert that by what it leaves out, Friedman’s book is dangerous. The authors point to the fact that there isn’t a single table or data footnote in Friedman’s entire book. “Globalization is the greatest reorganization of the world since the Industrial Revolution,” says Aronica. Aronica and Ramdoo conclude by listing over twenty action items that point the way forward, and they provide a comprehensive, yet concise, framework for understanding the critical issues of globalization.
You may want to see http://www.mkpress.com/flat
and watch http://www.mkpress.com/flatoverview.html
for an interesting counterperspective on Friedman’s
“The World is Flat”.
Also a really interesting 6 min wake-up call: Shift Happens! http://www.mkpress.com/ShiftExtreme.html
There is also a companion book listed: Extreme Competition: Innovation and the Great 21st Century Business Reformation
http://www.mkpress.com/extreme
http://www.mkpress.com/Extreme11minWMV.html