Thomas L. Friedman

Easton Press Thomas L. Friedman books

The World is Flat - Signed Limited Edition - 2006
Hot, Flat and Crowded - Signed First Edition - 2008
That Used To Be Us - written with Michael Mandelbaum - Signed First Edition - 2011

 

Writer Thomas L. Friedman

Thomas L. Friedman, born on July 20, 1953, in St. Louis Park, Minnesota, is an American journalist, author, and three-time Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist. Renowned for his work as a foreign affairs commentator, Friedman has been a prominent voice on global issues, particularly in the realms of economics, technology, and environmentalism.  Friedman's journey into journalism began during his college years at Brandeis University, where he worked for the student newspaper. He continued his studies at the University of Oxford, earning a Master's degree in Modern Middle East Studies. Friedman's deep interest in international affairs and his pursuit of knowledge about the Middle East laid the groundwork for his future career. In 1979, Friedman joined The New York Times, where he has spent the majority of his career. His early work focused on domestic issues and foreign policy, and he served as the Times' bureau chief in Beirut from 1982 to 1984. It was during this period that he gained firsthand experience and insights into the complexities of the Middle East.

Friedman's international reporting earned him the first of his three Pulitzer Prizes in 1983 for his coverage of the war in Lebanon. He continued to cover major events in the region, including the First Palestinian Intifada and the Gulf War. However, it was Friedman's transition to commentary and opinion writing that brought him widespread recognition. His column, Foreign Affairs, became a platform for his distinctive insights and analysis of global issues. Friedman's writing style is characterized by a blend of personal anecdotes, geopolitical analysis, and a focus on the impact of technological advancements on societies and economies.

One of Friedman's most notable works is his book The World is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century (2005). In this bestselling book, he explores the impact of globalization and technology on the world, arguing that these forces have leveled the playing field for individuals and businesses across the globe. Friedman is known for coining the term "Dell Theory of Conflict Prevention" in his book The Lexus and the Olive Tree (1999), where he suggests that countries with strong economic ties, like those doing business with Dell, are less likely to go to war with each other.

Beyond his journalistic and literary pursuits, Thomas L. Friedman has been a sought-after speaker and commentator, contributing to discussions on foreign policy, economics, and the environment. His ability to synthesize complex issues and present them in a accessible manner has made him a respected and influential figure in the world of journalism.
 

 

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

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.

The beginning of the twenty-first century will be remembered, Friedman argues, not for military conflicts or political events, but for a whole new age of globalization a flattening of the world the explosion of advanced technologies now means that suddenly knowledge pools and resources have connected all over the planet, levelling the playing field as never before, so that each of us is potentially an equal and competitor of the other the rules of the game have changed forever but does this death of distance, which requires us all to run faster in order to stay in the same place, mean the world has got too small and too flat too fast for us to adjust Friedman brilliantly demystifies the exciting, often bewildering, global scene unfolding before our eyes, one which we sense but barely yet understand the world is flat is the most timely and essential update on globalization, its successes and its discontents, powerfully illuminated by a world-class writer in his new if its not happening, its because youre not doing it and what happens when we all have dogs hearing the author explores both the benefits and disadvantages of the very latest developments in global communication the emergent popularity of blogging, pod-casting, Youtube and Myspace enable the modern world citizen to broadcast their views to a potential audience of billions, and the proliferation of internet access to even the poorest communities gives everyone who wants to the tools to address issues of social injustice and inequality on the other hand the technology that seems to improve communication on a global scale causes it to deteriorate on a local scale identifying ours as the age of interruption, Friedman discusses the annoyance and dangers of Blackberrys in meeting rooms, hands-free kits in conversation and using a phone or iPod whilst driving

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.)
When scholars write the history of the world twenty years from now, and they come to the chapter Y2K to March 2004 , what will they say was the most crucial development? The attacks on the World Trade Center on 9/11 and the Iraq war? Or the convergence of technology and events that allowed India, China, and so many other countries to become part of the global supply chain for services and manufacturing, creating an explosion of wealth in the middle classes of the world's two biggest nations, giving them a huge new stake in the success of globalisation? And with this flattening' of the globe, which requires us to run faster in order to stay in one place, has the world got too small and too fast for human beings and their political systems to adjust in a stable manner? In this brilliant new book, the award-winning New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman demystifies the brave new world for readers, allowing them to make sense of the often bewildering global scene unfolding before their eyes. With his inimitable ability to translate complex foreign policy and economic issues, Friedman explains how the flattening of the world happened at the dawn of the 21st century; what it means to countries, companies, communities and individuals; and how governments and societies can, and must, adapt.

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 drawback environmental, social, and political, powerfully illuminated by the Pulitzer Prize winning author of The Lexus and the Olive Tree.

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

"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.

Hot, Flat, and Crowded - Why We Need a Green Revolution – and How It Can Renew America

Thomas L. Friedman’s phenomenal number-one bestseller The World Is Flat has helped millions of readers to see the world in a new way. In his brilliant, essential new book, Friedman takes a fresh and provocative look at two of the biggest challenges we face America’s surprising loss of focus and national purpose since 9/11; and the global environmental crisis, which is affecting everything from food to fuel to forests. In this groundbreaking account of where we stand now, he shows us how the solutions to these two big problems are linked how we can restore the world and revive America at the same time. Friedman explains how global warming, rapidly growing populations, and the astonishing expansion of the world’s middle class through globalization have produced a planet that is “hot, flat, and crowded.” Already the earth is being affected in ways that threaten to make it dangerously unstable. In just a few years, it will be too late to fix things unless the United States steps up now and takes the lead in a worldwide effort to replace our wasteful, inefficient energy practices with a strategy for clean energy, energy efficiency, and conservation that Friedman calls Code Green. This is a great challenge, Friedman explains, but also a great opportunity, and one that America cannot afford to miss. Not only is American leadership the key to the healing of the earth; it is also our best strategy for the renewal of America. In vivid, entertaining chapters, Friedman makes it clear that the green revolution we need is like no revolution the world has seen. It will be the biggest innovation project in American history; it will be hard, not easy; and it will change everything from what you put into your car to what you see on your electric bill. But the payoff for America will be more than just cleaner air. It will inspire Americans to something we haven’t seen in a long time nation-building in America by summoning the intelligence, creativity, boldness, and concern for the common good that are our nation’s greatest natural resources. Hot, Flat, and Crowded is classic Thomas L. fearless, incisive, forward-looking, and rich in surprising common sense about the challenge and the promise of the future.

Friedman proposes that an ambitious national strategy, which he calls 'Code-Green', is not only what we need to save the planet from overheating it is what we need to make us all healthier, richer, more innovative, more productive, and more secure.

That Used to Be Us - How America Fell Behind in the World It Invented and How We Can Come Back

America is in trouble. We face four major challenges on which our future depends, and we are failing to meet them and if we delay any longer, soon it will be too late for us to pass along the American dream to future generations.
In That Used to Be Us , Thomas L. Friedman, one of our most influential columnists, and Michael Mandelbaum, one of our leading foreign policy thinkers, offer both a wake-up call and a call to collective action. They analyze the four challenges we face globalization, the revolution in information technology, the nation's chronic deficits, and our pattern of excessive energy consumption and spell out what we need to do now to sustain the American dream and preserve American power in the world. They explain how the end of the Cold War blinded the nation to the need to address these issues seriously, and how China's educational successes, industrial might, and technological prowess remind us of the ways in which "that used to be us." They explain how the paralysis of our political system and the erosion of key American values have made it impossible for us to carry out the policies the country urgently needs.
And yet Friedman and Mandelbaum believe that the recovery of American greatness is within reach. They show how America's history, when properly understood, offers a five-part formula for prosperity that will enable us to cope successfully with the challenges we face. They offer vivid profiles of individuals who have not lost sight of the American habits of bold thought and dramatic action. They propose a clear way out of the trap into which the country has fallen, a way that includes the rediscovery of some of our most vital traditions and the creation of a new third party movement to galvanize the country.
That Used to Be Us is both a searching exploration of the American condition today and a rousing manifesto for American renewal.

In That Used to Be Us, Thomas L. Friedman and Michael Mandelbaum analyze the four major challenges we face as a country globalization, the revolution in information technology, chronic deficits, and our pattern of energy consumption and spell out what we need to do now to preserve American power in the world. The end of the Cold War blinded the nation to the need to address these issues seriously, and China's educational successes, industrial might, and technological prowess in many ways remind us of a time when "that used to be us." But Friedman and Mandelbaum show how America's history, when properly understood, offers a five-part formula for prosperity that will enable us to cope successfully with the challenges we face.