13 years after publication, this remains on of the most important books I have read.

In the year of first publication it won the Economist Goldman Sachs Business Book of the Year Award.

Updates annually until 2008 were presumably designed to keep the publication topical. Nevertheless when I read it there were examples being cited of possible technological innovations that have become commonplace products in quotidian use for a decade.

This does not detract from Friedman’s supreme journalistic ability of explaining complex concepts with brevity and simplicity. It is what makes him a supreme columnist.

Friedman is an inveterate flattest: a believer in the international playing field being leveled to include  billions of new players and remove the physical and boundaries  that were keeping them out.

The competition places enormous pressure on the United States to retain its position of dominance.

Sadly his compatriots don’t seem alive  this. They are cutting the budgets of higher learning institutions.

He  maintains the age-old norms of jobs protected by trade unions and the political authorities are disappearing. There’s no more iron rice bowl, so survival depends on developing new skills.

Friedman also warns that sociopathic elements like Al  Qaeda and ISIS have learned to abuse the flat world benefits for their murderous ends. 2018-09-09