The World Is Flat : A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century

In 1999 Thomas Friedman published The Lexus and the Olive Tree: Understanding Globalization. It was Das Kapital for Smart America. In Friedman’s account, globalization is the organizing system of the post–Cold War era, but, unlike the Cold War, it is the result of technological advances and blind economic forces, not government policies. Rejecting

In his book, Friedman wrote about various “flatteners,” forces that were knitting the planet closer together. Several of these were digital technology: affordable Internet browsers like Netscape; workflow software that enabled collaboration between international businesses and…

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