“The World is Flat” by Thomas L. Friedman

Thomas L. Friedman is a well-know foreign affairs reporter for the New York Times, and has gained world renown for his book on globalization “The Lexus and the olive tree” published in 1992. While his previous book was widely criticized for taking the stance of the US-based multinationals that globalization is the best alternative and that US-led globalization is the way it should be done, he deviates from his US-centric looks in “The World is Flat” and spends more time talking about the rising power of India and China.

Friedman come to this conclusion not based on their current economic might, but on their educational system, and he quotes and explores in detail Bill Gates’ words: " In 2001, India graduated almost a million more students from college than the United States did. China graduates twice as many students with bachelor's degrees as the U.S., and they have six times as many graduates majoring in engineering."

The author is famous for his easy and conversational writing style, using information from his extensive travels and meetings with illustrious personalities around the globe. Although he has been often criticized that his books have arrogant and self-congratulatory tone, he manages to tell enough interesting anecdotes and draw original parallels to keep the reader interested. One of the statements from the book that sticks is when he talks about the emphasis that the government in China puts on educating young people in engineering in science and fostering and selecting the most intelligent and capable people, he says: “Even if you are one in a million, there are 1300 others just like you in China.”

The book has weak sides, since unlike his previous book, he tries to analyze globalization as a result of the technical innovations and capabilities, and it shows that his technical background is very limited. He tries to categorize and analyze the evolution of the globalization as a result of technical achievements, but because of lack of technical knowledge he spends too much time on obvious events and connections, while totally ignoring others, more fundamental and deserving.

This book would an interesting reading for anyone not coming from an overly high-tech background, but for someone who has been closely following all the technical achievements in the last 10-15 years, most parts of the book are pretty obvious and quite short of enlightening, but more trivial and repetitive.