A few years back I read freidmans book on globalization "lexus and the olive tree" and I thoroughly enjoyed it, although I was 17 so maybe I enjoyed the topic more than the book specifically.

Well when his new one came out I decided to give it a go and I'm frankly quite disappointed. "the world is flat" is a stupid title to begin with even after the explanation that it stands for the leveling of competition within the global marketplace.

Friedman seems almost frantic in scamparing through countless tidbits of stories from his travels to meet executives on the four corners of the earth. Yet the bits never feel close to whole and the thesis of pro global integration is akwardly handled. First starting out as an inevitable outcome and thereby an optimistic eventuality where everyone will have the chance to compete and then repealing into a plea from friedman to america to work harded lest it be knocked off its economic pedestal by coutries that figuratuvely "want it more" such as the usual suspects China, India and Russia.

Anyway I'm scared to see the state of american media when this guy is lauded for his contemporary brilliance in understanding world affairs. Scary actually.

Just wanted to get that off my chest, and wondered if anyone agrees/disagrees.

Hello,

This is probably going to seem strange, but I'm looking for the poster that the cover of the book is taken from, and I can't remember what the title of the poster is. If anyone out there has the original version of the book, with the ships falling over the edge of the ocean, I'd greatly appreciate it if you could look inside the book somewhere and see if it gives a pointer to it. I would guess it would be somewhere on the cover flap, or in an acknowledgments section. I'd buy it myself and look, but all I can find is the new version of the book without the ships.

Thanks!

I think that your screwed RWC, I work at the biggest book store corporation in Canada at one of the biggest locations in that section and I haven't seen that cover since like the week it came out. After that all the copies were the new covers.

Just curious, what parts of Friedman's thesis do you find "scary"? And / or disagree with? I don't always agree with him, but he certainly seems to have a more global outlook than most American commentators.