This book comes garlanded with awards – it’s the FT business book of the year, and the author’s won many a Pulitzer prize. In short it’s a book about globalisation, although that’s far too simplistic a word to truly explain what Friedman’s getting at.
The “Flatness” of the world that he’s talking about is the way that we can now outsource so many different services to far-flung parts of the world. For some time now, manufacture has happened everywhere, but now we can have people in India or China do many of the jobs we hadn’t previously thought of sending abroad. More and more work is shifting there. So what does this mean for the societies we live in (particularly America) and our futures? What are the good and bad things that are likely to happen as a consequence?
This book has been substantially rewritten between its hardback and paperback editions – rightly so, since the world’s moving pretty fast. And while you may have known many of the things that Friedman talks about, he crystalizes them well. At times you almost feel that you’re being brow-beaten into understanding a point as the same subject is returned to over and over, but it’s all very readable.
I suppose the biggest criticism I have is that at times the book is written from a too-American point of view. But Friedman is not afraid to confront some very uncomfortable subjects, and it’s to be hoped that the mass appeal of this book will lead a few more Americans to sit up and take notice. When you read about how many additional new cars are hitting the streets of Beijing every month, it’s not so difficult to understand why the price of oil is only ever going to get higher and higher.