The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century

I'll start off this humble review by saying : I'm not an economist ... But neither is Friedman ...

This is my first book in "Globalization" and economy (or anything of this sort), so while some might give this 2-3 stars for "repetitiveness" or "obviousness", I chose to give it 4. Initially, I was hesitant to grant this book the 4th star, but looking back, I DID actually learn some new things from this book. Furthermore, whatever observations I had about this matter (which were obvious to me and others) have been woven and blended beautifully into one big picture. Hence the four stars.

Friedman's book is thorough (maybe even TOO thorough), yet simple to understand and grasp. His point is clear: The World is Flat (or at least, flattening) due to the cause of the 10 flatteners he outlines in the first half, as well as what he dubbed "The Triple Convergence". The phrase "The World is Flat" is a bold metaphor to describe the changes in our world a.k.a. "Globalization".

He goes on to explain, through simple anecdotes and personal experiences (as well as some stats and numbers here and there, if needed) how this affects both America and developing countries. He foresees the near future and what is needed for both individuals and companies to cope with this new era he called Globalization 3.0. Also included in the mix is what countries might need to do (Glocalization).

He finishes off with the "Dell Theory of Conflict Prevention" which is a beautiful observation regarding the roles global supply chains "might" play in preventing wars (or at least trying to do so).

Friedman is a journalist, NOT an economist. So, expect nothing difficult; just simple stories, examples, anecdotes, and metaphors any average reader might comprehend. It reads easily like a long magazine article. If you are looking for theories and proof, this is NOT your book. Despite that, many of the author's suggestions and hypotheses seem real, reasonable, on point, and somewhat convincing.

Whether you are pro-globalization or anti-globalization, I suggest giving this book a quick scan. It sure has answered a LOT of questions I had in mind about various happenings in our world. Great job done there !

The book suffers from one major problem : Redundancy. This caused the 300-400-page-book to transform into a 600-paged-beast that won't go down easily. The author could've chopped this book down by at least 150-200 pages (maybe more if you get his point and conclude your own theories). Nonetheless, even if you end up skipping quite a few pages (especially in the latter half) it's OK, as this book acts more like a reference of the 21st century a suggested "manual" for the foreseeable feature ...

Conclusion:
Easy-to-read, albeit long magazine-like book which makes sense trying to explain what's happening in our world nowadays. Recommended for tech lovers "especially". But still great to read (even partially) for others. ( )

Very interesting, though a little dated.

Except for the pages describing how his laptop came to be, 3-5 examples rather then every single part would have sufficed, a pretty easy read.

I'd be interested in a follow-up regarding some of his theorys, the Dell Theory of Conflict Prevention for example and how it panned out, or maybe he'd like to have lunch with me sometime and answer my questions, but it would have to be your treat Tom, I'm not a best-selling author [McD's is OK] ;-)
( )

89

The famous globetrotting rube flies to India, plays golf with a high-tech sweatshop executive, and has an epiphany in the form of a nonsensical metaphor. “The playing field is level” does not translate into “The World is Flat.”

The torturous prose and incoherent, overwrought analogies aside, his entire premise is bogus. The playing field is not, and never was, level.

When will the jig be up for this self-proclaimed deep thinker? To paraphrase Dorothy Parker, “This is not a book to be tossed aside lightly. It should be thrown with great force.” ( )

Grundlagenlektüre für das Verständnis unserer gegenwärtigen Weltwirtschaft und deren Probleme ( )