A Book in Review – The World is Flat

Book Count: 5

The World is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century, By: Thomas L. Friedman
Non-fiction: current events, science, business 469 pages 2005

This book takes a look at all the factors that are “flattening” the world by making it easier to connect with people around the globe, how that is being used, ways that it is helpful or harmful to different groups and countries and the forces that are working to stop this. For when it was written it was well done; however, given the speed in which this is happening even being a couple years old makes parts of this book obsolete. For example, any book written today about how the shift of factory jobs to China would need to address the many problems found with the goods made in China over the last year and the ways that companies deal with the required recalls and how they affect the way the company, factory and countries involved work. In this book it was still operating under a believe that these goods were as safe as when they were made elsewhere. But it still was worth reading for the areas that would still be true today and for its analyst of how this flattening of the world is both helping unindustrialized nations better there standards of living, and creating problems due to the speed of changes. It also has an interesting theory on the sudden growth of fundamental Islamic terrorist groups. And at a bonus to mothers of young children everywhere it finally puts Pizza Guy as a hero on “Higglytown Heroes”. (Anyone that has been forced to watch this show over and over again will understand it. The book is talking about how technogy has allowed then to connect actors in Hollywood or New York with writers and artist across the country and the world, but importantly it goes over the ideas and goals of the show, which is about how everyone is a hero in their own way by doing their jobs. So people have been heroes because they cook, knit, feed the dog, brush their teeth and other simple non-hero type things, but there is this one guy (Pizza Guy) who delivers pizza and is always helping these kids in the show out, as if he was a helpful big brother that is NEVER EVER said to be a hero in the show even though he does more then the heroes sometimes, and it is nice to see that the creators of the show know that in “Higgly” logic he is a hero too.)