The World Is Flat 3.0 Luisterboek Tooltip Luisterboeken beluister je met de bol.com Kobo app. A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century

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This dynamic and intelligent book about globalisation is mainly based on interviews with key CEOs in the US, India and China was first published in 2005. It has no footnotes or references to academic works. It is cleverly composed and reads at times like a thriller. Good journalism always beats applied science re speed and readability. It will take the science community ages to undo the messages contained in this book, if it feels challenged to do so.
This reviewer acquired the book for 1 Euro on Amsterdam’s flee market. What? Is it book already old hat, obsolete? I think not. Friedman’s wonderful description of 10 main historic events (starting with the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989), which have made the world a more level playing field for entrepreneurs than ever before, takes over 200 pages. This section alone should be, and remain a key resource for students of history, policy makers, journalists and entrepreneurs for long.

In his next chapters Friedman predicted how IT would further revolutionize industry, services and entire nations. Many of his prophesies have come true, esp. in China, but not in his beloved India due to myriad legal, infrastructural and other problems. And both powerhouses also suffer from rather high rates of corruption and capital flight. (Friedman could not investigate Russia and its entrepreneurs, whose murky financial dealings help underpin London’s Square Mile and inflate its real estate market).

How much has it aged? The book’s index shows that some key IT companies have not evolved as predicted: in 2005, Google was still small and unlisted. There is no mention of Facebook, Twitter or other key players. Apple had invented the I-Pad, but the I-Phone came later. Skype is mentioned once. Instead, Friedman's text is still full of Firefox, an only recently recovering internet provider. Another unforeseen development is the success in Kenya of banking by telephone, a model for the rest of the world. Real experts can add to the list. But it remains a timely, important and well-written book.