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Books : The World Is Flat 3.0: A Brief History of the Twenty-first CenturyIn association with Amazon.com List Price: $16.00 Amazon.com's Price: $10.88 You Save: $5.12 (32%)Prices subject to change. Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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Binding: PaperbackDewey Decimal Number: 303.4833 EAN: 9780312425074 ISBN: 0312425074 Label: Picador Manufacturer: Picador Number Of Items: 1 Number Of Pages: 672 Publication Date: August 07, 2007 Publisher: Picador Release Date: July 24, 2007 Studio: Picador Sales Rank: 162 Related Items:
Editorial Review: Product Description: A New Edition of the Phenomenal #1 Bestseller "One mark of a great book is that it makes you see things in a new way, and Mr. Friedman certainly succeeds in that goal," the Nobel laureate Joseph E. Stiglitz wrote in The New York Times reviewing The World Is Flat in 2005. In this new edition, Thomas L. Friedman includes fresh stories and insights to help us understand the flattening of the world. Weaving new information into his overall thesis, and answering the questions he has been most frequently asked by parents across the country, this third edition also includes two new chapters--on how to be a political activist and social entrepreneur in a flat world; and on the more troubling question of how to manage our reputations and privacy in a world where we are all becoming publishers and public figures. The World Is Flat 3.0 is an essential update on globalization, its opportunities for individual empowerment, its achievements at lifting millions out of poverty, and its drawbacks--environmental, social, and political, powerfully illuminated by the Pulitzer Prize--winning author of The Lexus and the Olive Tree. Amazon.com Review: Updated Edition: Thomas L. Friedman is not so much a futurist, which he is sometimes called, as a presentist. His aim in The World Is Flat, as in his earlier, influential Lexus and the Olive Tree, is not to give you a speculative preview of the wonders that are sure to come in your lifetime, but rather to get you caught up on the wonders that are already here. The world isn't going to be flat, it is flat, which gives Friedman's breathless narrative much of its urgency, and which also saves it from the Epcot-style polyester sheen that futurists--the optimistic ones at least--are inevitably prey to. What Friedman means by "flat" is "connected": the lowering of trade and political barriers and the exponential technical advances of the digital revolution that have made it possible to do business, or almost anything else, instantaneously with billions of other people across the planet. This in itself should not be news to anyone. But the news that Friedman has to deliver is that just when we stopped paying attention to these developments--when the dot-com bust turned interest away from the business and technology pages and when 9/11 and the Iraq War turned all eyes toward the Middle East--is when they actually began to accelerate. Globalization 3.0, as he calls it, is driven not by major corporations or giant trade organizations like the World Bank, but by individuals: desktop freelancers and innovative startups all over the world (but especially in India and China) who can compete--and win--not just for low-wage manufacturing and information labor but, increasingly, for the highest-end research and design work as well. (He doesn't forget the "mutant supply chains" like Al-Qaeda that let the small act big in more destructive ways.) Friedman has embraced this flat world in his own work, continuing to report on his story after his book's release and releasing an unprecedented hardcover update of the book a year later with 100 pages of revised and expanded material. What's changed in a year? Some of the sections that opened eyes in the first edition--on China and India, for example, and the global supply chain--are largely unaltered. Instead, Friedman has more to say about what he now calls "uploading," the direct-from-the-bottom creation of culture, knowledge, and innovation through blogging, podcasts, and open-source software. And in response to the pleas of many of his readers about how to survive the new flat world, he makes specific recommendations about the technical and creative training he thinks will be required to compete in the "New Middle" class. As before, Friedman tells his story with the catchy slogans and globe-hopping anecdotes that readers of his earlier books and his New York Times columns know well, and he holds to a stern sort of optimism. He wants to tell you how exciting this new world is, but he also wants you to know you're going to be trampled if you don't keep up with it. A year later, one can sense his rising impatience that our popular culture, and our political leaders, are not helping us keep pace. --Tom Nissley Where Were You When the World Went Flat? The Essential Tom Friedman
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 Rating:  - Your Guide to Capitalism in the 21st CenturyThis is a fantastic survey of modern globalization- its benefits, dangers, history, major players, affects for all the world's citizens.... mostly from an economic and social standpoint. Friedman covers the "Globalization 3.0" phenomenon, which, rooted in the Internet, now includes the individual as the major player instead of corporations (2.0) or nations (1.0). The effects of globalization on art and spirituality are not touched upon very much, but are arguably not the subject of this book and ... Read More Rating: - Not the easiest read, but an eye-openerI actually had to get this book for a college class, and while it isn't the kind of book I would choose for myself to read, it has had quite an impact on my way of thinking. The world is changing, and those who sit with their eyes closed and pretend it's going to go away are in for a rude awakening. Friedman gives many insights into both the benefits and consequences of having a global communication via the internet, the world wide web, and other technological advances. This is just ... Read More Rating: - Read it or weep!Simply put, this is a book that any student of business or politics needs to read to claim currency. It's insightful, controversial, yet raises valid arguments for globalization. In summary---"You can't put the genie back in the bottle" so get with the program or be left behind. Rating: - one of the best for human philosophy, value system we live.Thomas Friedman shares with us the most updated human value system, Philosophy, we have to live on with passion and curiosity. This book presents the direction of human evolutiion with increased demand for more personal touch to thrive in this automated society. Thank you very much for your humanity. Hak-Nam Kim from McAllen, Texas Rating:  - Excellent Reportage - So So AnalysisFriedman is excellent at 'at the factory' reporting on supply chains, outsouring, reporting on the strengths of Bangalore and China, how services are now exported and imported and how all corporations are now effectively multinational. The world really is quite different than it was fifteen years ago and Friedman describes this well. Friedman's analysis of how to 'surf the wave' however amount to little more than bromides. Friedman encourages constant learning, stresses engineering and the sciences, ... Read More Browse for similar items by category:
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Thomas L. Friedman's reporter's curiosity and his ability to recognize the patterns behind the most complex global developments have made him one of the most entertaining and authoritative sources for information about the wider world we live in, both as the foreign affairs columnist for the New York Times and as the author of landmark books like From Beirut to Jerusalem and The Lexus and the Olive Tree. They also make him an endlessly fascinating conversation partner, and we've now had the chance to talk to him about The World Is Flat twice. Read our original interview with him following the publication of the first edition of The World Is Flat to learn why there's almost no one from Washington, D.C., listed in the index of a book about the global economy, and what his one-plank platform for president would be. (Hint: his bumper stickers would say, "Can You Hear Me Now?") 
