• The World Is Flat

  • Further Updated and Expanded
  • By: Thomas L. Friedman
  • Narrated by: Oliver Wyman
  • Length: 27 hrs and 15 mins
  • 4.0 out of 5 stars (976 ratings)

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The World Is Flat  By  cover art

The World Is Flat

By: Thomas L. Friedman
Narrated by: Oliver Wyman
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Publisher's summary

When scholars write the history of the world twenty years from now, what will they say was the most crucial development in the first few years of the twenty-first century? 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? And with this "flattening" of the globe, has the world gotten too small and too fast for human beings and their political systems to adjust in a stable manner?

©2007 Thomas L. Friedman (P)2007 Audio Renaissance, a division of Holtzbrinck Publishers LLC

Critic reviews

“Excellent...[This book's] insight is true and deeply important... The metaphor of a flat world, used by Friedman to describe the next phase of globalization, is ingenious.” —Fareed Zakaria, The New York Times Book Review (cover review)

“Captivating . . . an enthralling read. To his great credit, Friedman embraces much of his flat world's complexity, and his reporting brings to vibrant life some beguiling characters and trends. . . . [The World is Flat] is also more lively, provocative, and sophisticated than the overwhelming bulk of foreign policy commentary these days. We've no real idea how the twenty-first century's history will unfold, but this terrifically stimulating book will certainly inspire readers to start thinking it all through.” —Warren Bass, The Washington Post

“No one today chronicles global shifts in simple and practical terms quite like Friedman. He plucks insights from his travels and the published press that can leave you spinning like a top. Or rather, a pancake.” —Clayton Jones, The Christian Science Monitor

What listeners say about The World Is Flat

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  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars

If you like cliches...

This is a runaway bestseller??? I listened to the whole 27 hours and didn't hear anything I haven't been reading in Forbes, WSJ and Business Week for the last 10 years. I guess if you've been in a cave since 1997 or parachuted here from Mars and need a quick lesson on society, this could be helpful. Otherwise, I strongly discourage this. It is full of cliche and group-think. I felt I should have been given a medal for enduring the whole ordeal.

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41 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars

worth the listen

I skimmed the hard copy and settled on the audio book version. There are quite a few epiphanies here that take a while for the author to walk through but are worth the listen. The underlying theme that pervades this tome appears to be "Wake up America"! It could have been shorter and less prose like. The only other reviews that I saw that were negative centered around the fact that he wasn't telling us anything new. This viewpoint depends on your level of exposure to the business world - if you already significantly well read in this area there are no great eye openers. If however you are not sufficiently tuned in to globalization, transnationals, supply chain, outsourcing, insourcing and etc then put on some comfortable earphones and listen away.

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31 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • D
  • 08-30-07

Shorten it and I might be able to finish it

I listened to a sneak peek of this book early on but decided not to get it as it was long and the tone of the presentation was dry. Then this book was listed as a must read by leaders I respect so I finally got it.

The start is a bit slow and then it ran into my personal interests, I love the topic of software, internet, what can be done, the history of it and all. I still had to shut it down. What could be said in two minutes takes twenty then there is a re-cap. And on and on.

My five hour drive seemed like a ten hour drive.
I don't know why someone would not edit it down. I will look for the Cliff Notes.

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29 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars

Keeps going and going and.....

It's ironic that at least twice in this book Friedman decried those bloggers and other content uploaders who click the send button before checking what they have written. This book is in desperate need of a good editor who would tell Friedman things like,"You've already made this point." or "That metaphor was clever only the first time you used it" or "I don't think we need yet another example" or, "Let's cut out this kum-ba-ya moment."

There is plenty of good insight and commentary in this book, for example when he explains his concept of Islamist-leninism. However, there is a lot of repetition. I almost screamed as he went through the creation of his personalized Dell computer describing where each and every part of the computer had been manufactured and how it was assembled. The point he was trying to make was a good one, but it had already been made clear before.

I would recommend this book in its abridged version as there is just about 10 hours of worthwhile material in it. And that good material is very good.

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17 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars

Repetitive and unending...

Unabridged, repetitive and unending! A few good concepts dragged out for 27 hours. I only listen to unabridged audio books to assuage my guilt about not having time to read the real things. However, I can't believe this is just a reading of the book - 27 hours?! - the book is not that long - I've seen it. This is an unabridged "audio production," which apparently means talk until your audience falls asleep at the wheel.

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13 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars

average book, bad reader

The book's concepts are mostly just the author preaching his biases, which is fine, but his concepts are nothing new at all. If you read any news or books in the last 3 yrs, you should already have thought about these concepts.

However, the killer is the audio reader, Oliver Wyman. when he reads people's quotes from the book, he fakes an accent. So when he reads an Indian guys quote, he tries to imitate a slight Indian accent. After a few hours of listening, it gets a bit annoying.

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10 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Just feels out of date

There's a problem with The World is Flat and it's not Thomas Friedman's fault. His research is impeccable, his questions probing, his prose light and readable. No, the problem is that this book is now antiquated. It's sad to say that only a few years after the most recent publication, but I believe it's true.

The World is Flat discusses about how telecommunications in the digital age substantively changed the economics of the whole world. It describes how America has fallen behind parts of the world like India and Russia in taking greatest advantage of these changes and he predicts a shifting of economic supremacy in the future. Like I said, his research and reasoning is sound. But this was published before the 2008 economic collapse. That changed not only the United States but much of the Western and the developed world as well.

Because of the timing, his predictions are no longer exacting. If he wrote a new book, one discussing who will rise from the economic ashes best and fastest, using the technology he discussed in this book, I would read it. Friedman is good author, I just feel this book has been eclipsed by history.

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8 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars

Kind of Like Social Studies in the Seventh Grade

This book reads like a 7th grade Social Studies book, long and uninspiring. Remember the kid in school who would raise his hand and ask ridiculous questions just to hear his own voice? That kid grew up to be a journalist and wrote this book.

A few good points were made, but finding those points are like trying to find a needle in a stack of needles. Friedman emphasizes the need to be passionate about learning and exploring new disciplines. Ironically, this book will suck the passion from you.

Better titles for this book include: "Bangalore Rocks," or "How I Would Rule the World, If I Were King."

I could be wrong, but I can't recommend this book.

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7 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

Revisionist history, v3.0

I heard a free sample of this book on my GPS/Audible player and thought I'd give this book a try. I was, unfortunately, greatly disappointed by what I heard.

While this book does give good insights into just how the world has and is flattening, it is also amazing how the author has the audacity to focus solely on a Windows/Mac/AOL-centric model of technology, completely ignoring all the smaller yet just as important players and events into how the technology evolved.

Also, the personal attacks the author made on President George W. Bush are very unfortunate and not relevant to the overall arc of the book.

If you like revisionist history, this book is right up your alley.

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6 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars

A good introduction to the 21st century

The audiobook is definitely worth listening to if you are in any way interested in what is going on in our world today. In especially the first half of the audiobook you are introduced to how the world is flattened in a simple and easily understandable way. The audiobook only gets 4 stars, since it never seems to end, and you need several cups of coffee to stay awake through the entire audiobook.

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3 people found this helpful