The World is Flat, A Brief History of the 20th Century
By Thomas L. Friedman, 2005
Most of this book is an overview of the technological advances of the past few years which have allowed the world to collaborate on various types of work projects leading to a new globalization of trade.
As I was reading the book, I was already familiar with many of the tools that he described, but he filled in a lot of the blanks and provided some interesting history as to how these things evolved and gave some insight regarding the individuals who were responsible for their invention. On the other hand, I thought that the author was overselling the benefits of the new technology in that he made it appear as if they were going to lead us all to some kind of utopian global trade situation. I kept asking myself, if this is so, why is the world in such a mess?
Friedman redeemed himself in the last part of the book, however, when he outlined the reasons why a good part of the world, primarily the Islamic world, is not buying into the new globalization. He correctly describes the sources of the cultural divide and is much less optimistic about whether it can ever be overcome. Because of this more realistic and sobering view, I have much more respect for his overall assessment.
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