The World Is Flat

Further Updated and Expanded

By: Thomas L. Friedman

Narrated by: Oliver Wyman

Length: 27 hrs and 15 mins

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

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.

good

Would you try another book from Thomas L. Friedman and/or Oliver Wyman?

Plenty of information, very revealing, yet too long. It could have been condensed to a smaller volume, with more impact. There were several stories for further elaboration on the subject which seemed redundant. Overall the book is a major achievement.

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.

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.

An explanation of the changes we're living in

An excellent and remarkable explanation of how we are forced (or blessed) to reinvent ourselves to keep up with the world aroud us.
I simply loved it! Worthed every second!

The world is "flatter" than ever?!?

Great read. An eye opening thought provoking publication...a bit dated though. By the end of the book, (it felt as if every chapter was going to be it's last but Friedman kept on going, giving new examples of situations to drive his point of how the world is flat or flattening) I'd have to say, "I get it."
Enjoyable: It's the kind of book that brings up great conversations with those alike.

Endless

Could have provided message with less words. The examples took too long to develop.

The narrator did not help, appeared too much like slang.

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.

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.

Excellent and thought provoking!

The World is indeed flat, and this book explains it in a manner that makes sense, and connects so many world events to form what we know as the flat world.