by C Milleville

Created on: June 11, 2008

In the book, The World Is Flat by Thomas Friedman, the concept of a flat world serves as a metaphor portraying how economic progress has been and is currently reshaping the world. The idea is that as technologies, the growing ability of individuals to empower themselves on a global scale, and efficient ways of distributing services and products evolves, anyone from anywhere can compete with others on a level playing field when previously certain peoples or nations had advantages over others. The book primarily concentrates on the economic aspects of globalization, describing and analyzing the rapidly changing global markets and the growing and decreasing potentials of different nations. However, with the third version at over six hundred pages it covers many topics that extend past economics including some profoundly thought provoking analysis such as the topic on causes of terrorism and it relevance to globalization and economics tying together social phenomenon with economic phenomenon.

Basically, what the reader is led to believe is that a globalized world is an extremely scary place. As a journalist for the New York Times Friedman consistently writes journalistically in his book and everything he claims is based on an observation, statistics, or experience from either him or credible sources. The final product is an extremely convincing argument that may leave the reader fearful about his or her future as one of its points is that the United States is poorly prepared to succeed amidst the power globalization brings to other countries to become economic powers with more success. What it comes down to is that America does not have a guaranteed future of stability because with countries such as China and India ramping up as economic powers, Americans cannot be guaranteed the economic prosperity it currently possesses unless it learns to compete harder or "run faster" as Friedman explains it comparing countries to an African proverb in which a gazelle chased by a lion knows it must run faster than the lion to survive while the lion knows it must run faster than the gazelle if it wants to eat. Both want something but only the fastest will receive it. In a globalized world everyone can compete equally and a silent economic war is building up as people and nations compete to gain opulence.
I would definitely recommend The World Is Flat to everyone. It is easily one of the best nonfiction books available at this time and there is probably no better time to read it than now because it explains and provides a background for many of the problems people have already or will face in previous and future years. I warn that actually finishing this book requires patience because of its length. However, every bit of it is filled with useful and captivating information. Many people are surprised by the events happening right now in our world that are radically changing it and The World Is Flat reveals them. I have summarized only some of the topics of this book. It ties hundreds of different issues into the one large umbrella topic of globalization. On a scale of 1 to 10 I would give it a 9 for quality and its richness of analytical insights on the quickly changing world we live in.

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