I was required to read an earlier work by Thomas Friedman in college (From Beirut to Jerusalem) and absolutely loved his writing style. I decided to pick up The World is Flat to learn a little more about our world today.The subtitle of the book is "A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century." This might sound a little tongue-in-cheek or absurd, but it's what the book is. Friedman writes about why our world is the way it is today, and how it is changing.
His basic theory is that through a series of happenings and technological developments, our world has become flat. Not literally, of course, but in a sense that one can be anywhere in the world and compete for the same job, opportunity, etc. It's possible to do business with or hire someone internationally without ever having to meet them face to face. Many of the opportunities that were found almost exclusively in American can now be found in many places that we would never have dreamed of even 20 years ago.
I definitely recommend this book, if only for a perusal (grasping the "flatteners" is more than worthwhile) to anyone who is curious how they can prepare themselves and their children for the changing world. That's one of the reasons that studying culture/geography is so important. I tried teaching this to the kids I babysat, and they didn't quite understand. But they no more about other countries such as China and India that they didn't before, so progress is being made.
Widget by Css Reflex | TutZone
I really enjoy reading books like this that put the whole world into perspective, and why we are the way we are. This sounds like great winter reading.
ReplyDeleteRonnica, Did you see that you can download Friedman's book The World Is Flat for free this week? I work for the publisher, and we're giving it away with an excerpt of his new book (on clean energy and green tech): Hot, Flat, and Crowded: Why We Need a Green Revolution --And How It Can Renew America.
ReplyDeletewww.thomaslfriedman.com/giveaway
Thanks for the review - I'll add it to my list.
ReplyDelete