The World Is Flat 3.0

"[An] exciting and very readable account of globalization . . . [Friedman] provides a compelling case that something big is going on . . . 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 . . . In his provocative account, Mr. Friedman suggests what this brave new world will mean to all of us, in both the developed and the developing worlds."—Joseph E. Stiglitz, The New York Times

"The World Is Flat continues the franchise Friedman has made for himself as a great explicator of and cheerleader for globalization, building upon his 1999 The Lexus and the Olive Tree. Like its predecessor, this book showcases Friedman's gift for lucid dissections of abstruse economic phenomena, his teacher's head, his preacher's heart, his genius for trend-spotting . . . [This book] also shares some of the earlier volume's excitement (mirroring Rajesh Rao's) and hesitations about whether we're still living in an era dominated by old-fashioned states or in a postmodern, globalized era where states matter far less and the principal engine of change is a leveled playing field for international trade."—Warren Bass, The Washington Post

"Nicely sums up the explosion of digital-technology advances during the past 15 years and places the phenomenon in its global context . . . [Friedman] never shrinks from the biggest problems and the thorniest issues . . . Ambitious."—Paul Mangnusson, Business Week

"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 . . . The book is done in Friedman's trademark style. You travel with him, meet his wife and kids, learn about his friends and sit in on his interviews . . . [This method] works in making complicated ideas accessible . . . Friedman has a flair for business reporting and finds amusing stories about Wal-Mart, UPS, Dell, and JetBlue, among others, that relate to his basic theme."—Fareed Zakaria, The New York Times Book Review (cover review)

"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."—Clayton Jones, The Christian Science Monitor

"Friedman is such a good reporter and writer that he will keep you turning pages . . . [He] is gifted at reducing big trends into easily digestible bites, providing a readable account of the main forces that have flattened the world."—Peter Hadekel, Montreal Gazette

"Gives us a glimpse of the brave new flat world that is already upon us . . . [Friedman] writes in a playful manner [and] likes to use lists and new expressions [and] while his technique may at times be lighthearted and informal, Friedman's meaning is clear: Accept the new world, adapt to it and prosper, or ignore the new developments at your peril."—Russ L. Juskalian, USA Today

"A brilliant, instantly clarifying metaphor for the latest, arguably the most profound conceptual megashift to rock the world in living memory . . . The World is Flat is well written, a fast read [that] covers all the bases . . . This is an important book."—David Ticoll, The Globe and Mail (Toronto)

"Friedman is a smart guy, a good reporter . . . His best writing [in this book] comes when he acknowledges the problems of globalization."—Kevin Drum, The Washington Monthly

"This is an unusual book to recommend to psychologists. It is not about psychology. It is not written by a psychologist. However, read through the lens of professional psychology, it invites a major inquiry into the future of [the] profession . . . Perhaps one of the most important challenges psychology faces is applying its expertise to human welfare in a flattened and flattening world . . . Psychologists should take time to ponder the relentless and geometric globalization Friedman describes."—Contemporary Psychology

"Before 9/11, New York Times columnist Friedman was best known as the author of The Lexus and the Olive Tree, one of the major popular accounts of globalization and its discontents. Having devoted most of the last four years of his column to the latter as embodied by the Middle East, Friedman picks up where he left off, saving al-Qaeda et al. for the close. For Friedman, cheap, ubiquitous telecommunications have finally obliterated all impediments to international competition, and the dawning 'flat world' is a jungle pitting 'lions' and 'gazelles,' where 'economic stability is not going to be a feature' and 'the weak will fall farther behind.' Rugged, adaptable entrepreneurs, by contrast, will be empowered. The service sector (telemarketing, accounting, computer programming, engineering and scientific research, etc.), will be further outsourced to the English-spoken abroad; manufacturing, meanwhile, will continue to be off-shored to China. As anyone who reads his column knows, Friedman agrees with the transnational business executives who are his main sources that these developments are desirable and unstoppable, and that American workers should be preparing to 'create value through leadership' and 'sell personality' . . . [The book's] last 100 pages on the economic and political roots of global Islamism are filled with the kind of close reporting and intimate yet accessible analysis that have been hard to come by. Add in Friedman's winning first-person interjections and masterful use of strategic wonksterisms, and this book should end up on the front seats of quite a few Lexuses and SUVs of all stripes."—Publishers Weekly

"[Friedman] claims that the most significant events of the 21st century are happening now . . . with technology binding more and more countries together."—Library Journal