The World Is Flat 3.0: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century by Thomas L. Friedman Summary and Reviews
|
List Price: Our Price: $7.95 You Save: $8.05 (50%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Category: Book See more book details and other editions |
|---|
Book Reviews of The World Is Flat 3.0: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century
Book Review: opinionated and not representative
Summary: 2 Stars
First of all, I loved Lexus and the Olive Tree, so I was really looking forward to this one. Oh dear, what a mistake!!
Generally, Friedman sets his arguement up quite well, it is a concievable idea that the world is becoming flatter. However, his arguements are backed up by what he see's and only what he see's. He fails to recognise that, for example, although India's economy is booming there is poverty on a large scale, but Friedman argues that if some people become better educated and they can compete on the world stage (against the US) then the poor will eventually be lifted out of poverty. I personally doubt that Mr Friedman.
This could have been a good book, but it is purely an opinionated perspective that backs the authors arguement of free market liberalism is good - and now it can be done on a global scale.
I am sorry but this book throws years of liberal reform right back to the grand old age of filthy capitalism of the pre-Beverage era. Some will enjoy (Capitalists'), i didnt!!
Book Review: Verbose but stimulating
Summary: 4 Stars
Yes, this is very much a US-centric book, with plenty of criticism towards the US nevertheless. It is aimed at an American audience and it does not claim to be the definitive work on China or India.
Yes, it is verbose and brimming with personal anecdotes sometimes masquerading as hard data. But it still presents the enormous revolution -- a series of extraordinary events that have converged -- that is so overwhelming and rapid that most of us simply have not had time to even begin to process what is happening to us. You may not agree with everything he says -- including the solutions he suggests -- but this book is well worth reading. You don't have to agree with everything he says, and it is superficial in parts. Nevertheless I am certain that Americans and Western Europeans would be challenged by this book.
As a Career Counselor, I think there is much food for thought about the world of work and skills needed in tomorrow's marketplace ... which will be here much sooner than we think.
Book Review: Let the debates begin
Summary: 3 Stars
I think this is a good summary of how our interconnected world has recently come into being. The book has much to its credit and also much to be criticised.
On the one hand its a great read, its a journalistic journey (more like a romp) of discovery for the author, he randomly comes across various facts and research, some of it good some of it laughable, then knits together these disparate ideas into some naive vision of the whole.
The author lives up to the true traditions of journalism, take complex ideas, then simplify them (until they are simplistic) then from this point generalise about the world.
What I really like about this book is that it inadvertently reveals the isolationism and denial in American thinking, true the Author himself is trying to draw his fellow Americans attention to their myopia, but even the author is myopic, how a book can talk about changing world economic orders and not mention, other than one paragraph the European Community?
I am also a little confused about the notion that this is good for American consumerism as it reduces prices, but he seems to have missed that fact that the Americans are going to become poorer in the future and will not be able to purchase these goods and services because all the wealth generating activities are off shore! he seems to think that this is OK because it will be American companies owning many of the offshore companies. That may be great for the corporates and shareholders but what about the rest of society?
For creating a debate this book deserves to be a best seller, it does not have the answers and does not claim to provide them. The Author knows that something big is shifting and we had better start understanding what it is all about before its too late.
Book Review: Long-winded but well written
Summary: 4 Stars
Firstly a health warning - it's a REALLY long book. Even skimming some sections it took me a long while to read it. Overall it is a good if somewhat long winded read. As someone working in technology I found it a little patronizing in places but that could just be a function of its target audience not working day to day with some of the technologies he's discussing.
The book lays out a series of trends and technologies that have, in his phrase, flattened the world by making it more interconnected than ever before. He goes on to discuss how this fits with globalization, how companies are reinventing themselves in the face of these changes, some of the problems and risks and what kinds of political and public policy impacts it might all have.
If you are a patient reader this is a good introduction and discussion of the issues facing business and government in the Internet era. If you are not, you might want to find something shorter.
Book Review: Waste of Time
Summary: 1 Stars
The book describes how we need to look at the world as if distance isn't the great barrier it once was. 10 minutes skim reading will tell you what you need to know.