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As the Foreign Affairs columnist for The New York Times,
Thomas L. Friedman has traveled to the four corners of the globe, interviewing
people from all walks of contemporary life -- Brazilian peasants in the Amazon
rain forest, new entrepreneurs in Indonesia, Islamic students in Tehran, and the
financial wizards on Wall Street and in Silicon Valley. Now
Friedman has drawn on his years on the road to produce an engrossing and original
look at the new international system that, more than anything else, is shaping
world affairs today: globalization. His argument can
be summarized quite simply. Globalization is not just a phenomenon and not just
passing trend. It is the international system that replaced the Cold War system.
Globalization is the integration of capital, technology, and information across
national borders, in a way that is creating a single global market and, to some
degree, a global village. You cannot understand the
morning news or know where to invest your money or think about where the world
is going unless you understand this new system, which is influencing the domestic
policies and international relations of virtually every country in the world today.
And once you do understand the world as Friedman explains it, you'll never look
at it quite the same way again. With vivid stories
and a set of original terms and concepts, Friedman shows us how to see this new
system. He dramatizes the conflict of "the Lexus and the olive tree' -- the
tension between the globalization system and ancient forces of culture, geography,
tradition, and community. He also details the powerful backlash that globalization
produces among those who feel brutalized by it, and he spells out what we all
need to do to keep this system in balance. Finding
the proper balance between the Lexus and the olive tree is the great drama of
the globalization era, and the ultimate theme of Friedman's challenging, provocative
book -- essential reading for all who care about how the world really works. Thomas
L. Friedman is one of America's leading interpreters of world affairs. Born in
Minneapolis in 1953, he was educated at Brandeis University and St. Antony's College,
Oxford. His first book, From Beirut to Jerusalem, won the National Book
Award in 1988. Mr. Friedman has also won two Pulitzer Prizes for his reporting
for The New York Times as bureau chief in Beirut and in Jerusalem. He lives
in Bethesda, Maryland, with his wife, Ann, and their daughters, Orly and Natalie. |
