The World Is Flat [Updated and Expanded]: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century

My manager purchased this book a couple years ago and recommended it but at the time I had no interest. I just completed a 'Technology & Culture' online course which featured this book as our text. At first, I was a bit skeptical but after the first couple chapters, I knew exactly why our professor chose this book. It is very appropriate for the course topic (Technology & Culture) in addition to being very relevant for college students, professionals and parents, both young and old.

The author does a great job of making the content interesting through real world examples with bits of humor thrown in. The humor is a great addition as some chapters paint a very gloomy picture. This book explains globalization from the international as well as the American perspective. It appeals to your compassion for others, your patriotism and your own fears and desires for yourself and your children.

The most important feature of this book is that it enables you to prepare yourself and/or your children for a flatter world. How you approach education, training and planning for the future should take into account how the world is flattening. Closing your eyes and hoping it will go away isn't an option. Technology and the flattening it makes possible have happened, are happening and will continue well into the future. In order to prepare for these changes, you should educate yourself. This book is a great tool to jump start that process. While it doesn't answer every question and actually raises many more than it answers...it opens your eyes to pros and cons of globalization. Prior to reading this book, I was pro protectionism. Now, I think that would be a very costly mistake.

I highly recommend this book to anyone looking to better understand how technology is affecting our culture, our economy and our world. It is a good and valuable read.

I think this book is OK but far from complete, Let see here..

Pros -
- Comparatively detailed analysis on offshoring, near-shore centers.
- Explains well about the corporate needs - References to Dell, Wal-Mart and explain why they need it (including supply chain). Both are good examples today's corporate operating modalities.
- Gives a new perspective of offshoring, if you look at carefully. With the economic dynamics of developing nations, the offshoring model will continue to exist, BUT it may not be just one country/continent - It will go where most cost effective.

Cons -
- I'm not sure why so much references to Al-Qaida, baffles why economic book need so much reference about this org - not much helping to point. It's just verbose
- Too much optimism added on the offshoring/India, but there are places where it burned the US corporations. This shows shallow view on the Authors understanding in Indian model.
- Too much reference quite a few companies
- Nothing specific about where the offshore will move to next generation of it, just explains current and past - More like a history text rather than future vision incubator.

- Suria

We are in a changed world! And Friedman brought it out so beautifully well.

He talks of 10 flatterners, that are so beautifully related to what we see today. One world, one people. The beauty of the author is that he integrates very logically on how the 10 events in history have contributed to what we see today. for e.,g how fall of berlin wall or even the .com burst, helped flatten the world.

A must read and Friedman does have a way of capturing the audience.

The World is Flat is a great and thorough examination of what is currently going on in the world in regards to globalization. It starts out with a bleak portrait of America's economic future and lists the many factors leading to this demise. The book then takes us through the many factors that lead to what Friedman calls "a flat world." As the text continues Friedman explains how other countries are benefiting from a shrinking world via the technology that is available. He lists how some countries that are not rich in natural resources are mining the brains and strong work ethic of its populace. Friedman breaks down the current winners and losers of globalization and lists the factors and contributors of why certain groups seem to win so easily and others are barely winning and others seem to be losing. He does a great job of detailing the inhibitors and accelerants of economic growth in both 3rd world countries and even modern day America. He lists those factors out in great detail explaining why and how they affect the economic growth and shrinkage of countries. This book could serve as a guide to developing nations around the world as a National economic growth guide for dummies. The book ends with the author explaining how computers and the Internet are changing our world is changing around us. He spends some time prognosticating the future that our children and their children will inherit. Overall the book ends on a positive not that globalization will be as good for America as for the rest of the world. We will either adapt and thrive or die a slow economic death.

This book has a variety of flaws, and the parts that are not satisfying to read almost made me lean toward 4 or even 3 stars, but on the whole it is still fully deserving of 5 stars. An example of something I did not like is the excessive ramblings on Arabs and terrorism, which form part of the presumably new chapters that Friedman hastily slapped to the end of the book to address criticisms and shortcomings in prior editions (or so I imagine). These final chapters are laced with such seemingly inappropriate stretches that are far from the eloquent, structured style of the rest of the book.

Nevertheless, it is indeed in general a fairly well researched, eye-opening account of the perils and promises of globalization.