The World Is Flat
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 Original 1st edition cover | |
| Author | Thomas Friedman |
|---|---|
| Cover artist | I Told You So, by E.D. Miracle; 1976. |
| Language | English |
| Subject | Globalization |
| Publisher | Farrar, Straus and Giroux |
Publication date | April 5, 2005 |
| Publication place | United States |
| Media type | Print (Hardcover and Paperback) and audio-CD |
| Pages | 488 |
| ISBN | 0-374-29288-4 |
| OCLC | 57202171 |
| 330.90511 22 | |
| LC Class | HM846 .F74 2005 |
| Preceded by | Longitudes and Attitudes |
| Followed by | Hot, Flat, and Crowded |
The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century is a book by Thomas L. Friedman that analyzes globalization, primarily in the early 21st century. The title is a metaphor for viewing the world as a level playing field in terms of commerce, wherein all competitors, except for labor, have an equal opportunity. As the first edition cover illustration indicates, the title also alludes to the perceptual shift required for countries, companies, and individuals to remain competitive in a global market in which historical and geographic divisions are, according to the author, becoming increasingly irrelevant.[citation needed]
Friedman is a strong advocate of those changes[which?], calling himself a "free-trader" and a "compassionate flatist", and he criticizes societies that resist the changes. He emphasizes the inevitability of a rapid pace of change and the extent to which the emerging abilities of individuals and developing countries are creating many pressures on businesses and individuals in the United States; he has special advice for Americans and for the developing world. Friedman's is a popular work[citation needed] based on much personal research, travel, conversation, and reflection. In his characteristic style, through personal anecdotes and opinions, he combines in The World Is Flat a conceptual analysis accessible to a broad public. The book was first released in 2005, was later released as an "updated and expanded" edition in 2006, and was yet again released with additional updates in 2007 as "further updated and expanded: Release 3.0". The title was derived from a statement by Nandan Nilekani, former CEO of Infosys.[1] The World Is Flat won the inaugural Financial Times and Goldman Sachs Business Book of the Year Award in 2005.[2]
Summary
In his book The World Is Flat, Friedman recounts a journey to Bangalore, India, when he realized globalization has changed core economic concepts.[3] In his opinion, that flattening is a product of the convergence of the personal computer with fiber optic microcable with the rise of work flow software. Friedman termed the period Globalization 3.0, thereby differentiating it from the previous, Globalization 1.0, during which countries and governments were the main protagonists, and Globalization 2.0, during which multinational companies led the way in driving global integration.
Dell Theory of Conflict Prevention
The Dell Theory of Conflict Prevention, also known as simply the Dell Theory, is a capitalist peace theory and an updated version of Friedman's previous "Golden Arches Theory of Conflict Prevention". According to Friedman:
The Dell Theory stipulates: No two countries that are both part of a major global supply chain, like Dell's, will ever fight a war against each other as long as they are both part of the same global supply chain.[4]
Critical reception
The World Is Flat received generally positive popular and critical reception as well as some negative criticism, peppered with doubt.
The Washington Post called the book an "engrossing tour" and an "enthralling read". The review closed with, "We've no real idea how the 21st century's history will unfold, but this terrifically stimulating book will certainly inspire readers to start thinking it all through".[5]
An opposing viewpoint was found in a 2007 Foreign Policy magazine article in which Professor Pankaj Ghemawat argued that 90% of the world's phone calls, Web traffic, and investments are local, suggesting that Friedman has grossly exaggerated the significance of the trends he describes: "Despite talk of a new, wired world where information, ideas, money, and people can move around the planet faster than ever before, just a fraction of what we consider globalization actually exists."[6][7]
Some critics have pointed out that the book is written from an American perspective. Friedman's work history has been mostly with The New York Times, and that may have influenced the way the book was written – some would have preferred a book written in a more "inclusive voice".[8]
Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz has been critical of Friedman's book:
Friedman is right that there have been dramatic changes in the global economy, in the global landscape; in some directions, the world is much flatter than it has ever been, with those in various parts of the world being more connected than they have ever been, but the world is not flat ... Not only is the world not flat: in many ways, it has been getting less flat.
— Joseph E. Stiglitz (2007): Making Globalization Work. pp. 56–57
Richard Florida expresses similar views in his 2005 Atlantic article "The World Is Spiky".[9]
John Gray, formerly a School Professor of European Thought at the London School of Economics and Political Science, wrote another critical review of Friedman's book called "The World Is Round". In it, Gray confirms Friedman's assertion that globalization is making the world more interconnected and, in some parts, richer but disputes the notion that globalization makes the world more peaceful or freer. Gray also declares, "least of all does it make it flat".[10]
Geographers on the whole have been particularly critical of Friedman's writings, views influenced by the large body of work within their field demonstrating the uneven nature of globalization, the strong influence place still has on people's lives, and the dependent relationships that have been established between the have and have-not regions in the current world-system. Geographer Harm de Blij detailed those arguments for the general public in Why Geography Matters: Three Challenges Facing America (2005) and The Power of Place: Geography, Destiny, and Globalization's Rough Landscape (2008).
Editions
- The World is Flat (1st ed.). Farrar, Straus and Giroux. 2005. ISBN 0-374-29288-4. [The original jacket illustration, reproducing the painting I Told You So by Ed Miracle, depicting a sailing ship falling off the edge of the world, was changed during the print run due to copyright issues.[11] These issues were settled in March, 2006.[12]]
- The World is Flat (Audiobook ed.). Audio Renaissance. 2005. ISBN 1-59397-668-2.
- The World is Flat: Updated and Expanded (Release 2.0) (2nd ed.). Farrar, Straus and Giroux. 2006. ISBN 0-374-29279-5.
- The World is Flat: Further Updated and Expanded (Release 3.0) (2nd revised and expanded ed.). Farrar, Straus and Giroux. 2007. ISBN 0-374-29278-7.
References
- ^ Daniel H. Pink (May 2005). "Why the World Is Flat". WIRED. Retrieved 2014-12-10.
- ^ "Business books of the decade; The World Is Flat". The Financial Times Ltd. Retrieved 31 July 2015.
- ^ Warren Bass (April 3, 2005). "The Great Leveling". Washington Post. Retrieved 2007-09-06.
- ^ The World is Flat (ISBN 1-59397-668-2), Thomas L. Friedman, pg 421
- ^ "The Great Leveling". The Washington Post. 2005-04-03. Retrieved 2013-11-26.
- ^ Pankaj Ghemawat (March/April 2007). "Why the World Isn't Flat" Foreignpolicy.com. (Subscription). Accessed 2008-04-03.
- ^ Pankaj Ghemawat (March 2007). Why the world isn't flat. Foreign Policy. Accessed 2012-10-05.
- ^ Peter Begley (2006). "The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century". Accessed 2006-11-06.
- ^ Richard Florida (October 2005). "The world is spiky". Atlantic Monthly. Accessed 2009-05-09.
- ^ Gray, John (2005). "The World is Round". The New York Review of Books (Trans. Array, Web ed.). pp. 1–9.
- ^ Justin Fox (October 17, 2005). "A Painter Is Flat-Out Flimflammed". Fortune Magazine. Retrieved 2007-10-21.
- ^ "The World Is Flat - Ed Miracle and defendants settle case".
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