The World Is Flat 3.0: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century by Thomas L. Friedman Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of The World Is Flat 3.0: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century
Book Review: What about ecology and sustainable development?
Summary: 1 Stars
Friedman and his MNC coherts ignore the ecological damage
to the air and "commons." Their uncontrolled and unregulated
privatization of nature--everything from land, to water, to
seeds, to timber is gravely endangering our ability to survive.
Read Daniel Diamond's Collaspe before you swallow these ideas
whole.
Book Review: A Clear Message.
Summary: 5 Stars
In "The World is Flat", Friedman shines a bright light on global outsourcing, and what America must do to compete in the new world. The answer is not in closing our borders, but in embracing and adapting to the current situation. To not pay head to what he is saying is a dangerous gambit--one in which the individual shuts their eyes to the realities of the day in a hope for easy solutions. This book is revealing of our failures of the past and offers prescriptions for success in the future. A must read by anyone who wants to understand some of the essentials of globalization and the inevitable changes that are taking place around the world. The reality of globalization may not be palatable to all readers, but ignoring the situation will not make it go away. Reading "The World is Flat" will at least prepare one for a new era in an increasingly small world.
Still, the book is not without its flaws. Friedman is perhaps too invested in the idea of globalization, too enamored with its prospects. One might guess, from reading his book, that all the world's ills can be solved through globalization. The truth of the matter is that a trickle-down economy will not reach the poorest of the poor, at least not within a sensible time period. The ideas Friedman presents on globalization must be tempered with a real investigation of poverty and its solutions. For that, one might wish to read Dr. Abraham George's "India Untouched" or Professor Jeffrey Sachs' "The End of Poverty".
Book Review: Nothing special about this book
Summary: 1 Stars
I felt that this book in many ways simply rehashed the globalization narrative that has been so current and fashionable, there is no need to buy the book to find these points, they are in any pop business hype publication or in any intro to business community college class. I am a business professor, and this is the kind of analysis I make when I don't have any real point to make but want people to nod their heads when I talk. Book Review: Friedman: Journalism with a hyperthyroid problem
Summary: 1 Stars
Shiva Vaidhyanathan ("The Anarchist in the Library") identified Friedman as "Someone who specializes in writing glib, vastly simplified articles on very complicated topics." Vaidhyanathan pointed out how Friedman's first reaction after 9/11 was to blame the Internet as "the technology most responsible for this catastrophe."
Gee, Tom, you don't think that would be "the airplane?"
I've always hated Friedman. He writes with a manic quality that dodges left and right around inconvenient details or moral evaluations. He simultaneously believes that history has a purpose AND that those who oppose anything that happens in the world are being head-in-the-sanders and obstructionists. He's an 'anti-normativist'--if something in the world happens, then, according to Friedman, it was clearly meant to happen and is surely for the best.
Personally, I'm waiting to see his reaction when the New York Times realizes they can get someone to write in favor of global outsourcing for 1/10th his salary by outsourcing their column-writing duties to India.
Book Review: Free marketplace and democracy equals prosperity !
Summary: 5 Stars
Thomas Friedman is a visionary and the premise he puts forth needs to be considered carefully: Can Americans compete on a "flattened playing field"?
You better believe we can ! We are competitors ! That is what we do best ! We can re-tool and re-think and re-search with the best of them ! We are Americans !!