Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 320
EAN: 9780006551393
ISBN: 0006551394
Label: HarperCollins Publishers Ltd
Manufacturer: HarperCollins Publishers Ltd
Number Of Pages: 352
Publication Date: April 17, 2000
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers Ltd
Sales Rank: 380744
Studio: HarperCollins Publishers Ltd

---

Related Items:

• The World Is Flat 3.0: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century
• Hot, Flat, and Crowded: Why We Need a Green Revolution--and How It Can Renew America
• From Beirut to Jerusalem
• Longitudes and Attitudes: The World in the Age of Terrorism
• Freakonomics [Revised and Expanded]: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything
• see more

---

Editorial Review:

Product Description:
Half of this new, post-Cold War world is intent on building a better Lexus, on streamlining their societies and economies for the global marketplace, while the other half is locked in elemental struggles over who owns which olive tree, which strip of land. The key question, addressed in this book, is how best to retain national identity and control over our lives while still linking up to the soulless, faceless global institutions in order to survive economically.

Amazon.com Review:
One day in 1992, Thomas Friedman toured a Lexus factory in Japan and marveled at the robots that put the luxury cars together. That evening, as he ate sushi on a Japanese bullet train, he read a story about yet another Middle East squabble between Palestinians and Israelis. And it hit him: Half the world was lusting after those Lexuses, or at least the brilliant technology that made them possible, and the other half was fighting over who owned which olive tree.

Friedman, the well-traveled New York Times foreign-affairs columnist, peppers The Lexus and the Olive Tree with stories that illustrate his central theme: that globalization--the Lexus--is the central organizing principle of the post-cold war world, even though many individuals and nations resist by holding onto what has traditionally mattered to them--the olive tree.

Problem is, few of us understand what exactly globalization means. As Friedman sees it, the concept, at first glance, is all about American hegemony, about Disneyfication of all corners of the earth. But the reality, thank goodness, is far more complex than that, involving international relations, global markets, and the rise of the power of individuals (Bill Gates, Osama Bin Laden) relative to the power of nations.

No one knows how all this will shake out, but The Lexus and the Olive Tree is as good an overview of this sometimes brave, sometimes fearful new world as you'll find. --Lou Schuler




Rating: - A Fallen Prophet
Thomas Friedman is basically the prophet of completely unregulated markets and completely unregulated capital free flows. Little more has to be said. Friedman was/is chief spokesperson for the architects of the current financial debacle hitting the US.

---

Rating: - Great and insightful when first written, but feels dated today
I admire Friedman's intellect, his decades of hands-on, in-the-trenches reporting all over the world (and especially in the Mideast). And he writes so clearly, colorfully and with energy. When this was first written, it was a novel perspective on what was happening in globalization of trade, communications, entertainment, etc.

The updates to the book, to make it relevant to our post-9/11 world, are helpful but they feel like an afterthought. The main meat of the book is still largely ... Read More

---

Rating: - Pseudo-Economics and Market Fundamentalism
I read part of this book for a Globalization class I was taking, plus a few chapters from a different book "Globalization and Its Discontents" by Joseph Stiglitz. I initially liked what I read from Friedman. It seemed positive and interesting in comparison to Stiglitz (which focused on IMF economic policies and was VERY angry). However, upon reading the whole Stiglitz book and then going back to Friedman, I found Friedman to be poorly educated in economics and a waste of my time. It is indeed a cheerleader ... Read More

---

Rating: - Heavy
Had some good ideas but pretty heavy reading. Not for the short attention span person.

---

Rating: - Heavyhanded, Not Recommended
This is the first book I've read on the hot topic of globalization and I think it's fair to say I was disappointed, especially considering how popular this book is. What is most odd about this book is that it does not feel like it was written by a journalist at all: it rarely relies on facts or scenarios that actually happened. Much of the book contains dialogues (mostly among world leaders) that Friedman invented for literary effect. He also goes overboard on inventing his own terminology for the subject. ... Read More

---

Browse for similar items by category:

• Economics - Business & Investing - Subjects - Books - Theory
• Ideologies - Politics - Nonfiction - Subjects - Books - General AAS
• Movements - Political Science - Social Sciences - Nonfiction - Subjects - Books - Nationalism
• Social Sciences - Nonfiction - Subjects - Books - General
• Social Sciences - Nonfiction - Subjects - Books - General AAS