| Product Summary | | Format: Hardcover | | ISBN: 9780374166854 | | Publisher: Farrar Straus Giroux | | Publish Date: 9/8/2008 | | Buy.com Sku: 206216990 | | Item#: | | Buy.com Sales Rank: 8596 | | Dimensions (in Inches) 9.25H x 6.5L x 1.25T | | Pages: 256 |
|
|
|
| | | Thomas L. Friedman’s phenomenal number-one bestseller The World Is Flat has helped millions of readers to see the world in a new way. In his brilliant, essential new book, Friedman takes a fresh and provocative look at two of the biggest challenges we face today: America’s surprising loss of focus and national purpose since 9/11; and the global environmental crisis, which is affecting everything from food to fuel to forests. In this groundbreaking account of where we stand now, he shows us how the solutions to these two big problems are linked--how we can restore the world and revive America at the same time.
Friedman explains how global warming, rapidly growing populations, and the astonishing expansion of the world’s middle class through globalization have produced a planet that is “hot, flat, and crowded.” Already the earth is being affected in ways that threaten to make it dangerously unstable. In just a few years, it will be too late to fix things--unless the United States steps up now and takes the lead in a worldwide effort to replace our wasteful, inefficient energy practices with a strategy for clean energy, energy efficiency, and conservation that Friedman calls Code Green.
This is a great challenge, Friedman explains, but also a great opportunity, and one that America cannot afford to miss. Not only is American leadership the key to the healing of the earth; it is also our best strategy for the renewal of America.
In vivid, entertaining chapters, Friedman makes it clear that the green revolution we need is like no revolution the world has seen. It will be the biggest innovation project in American history; it will be hard, not easy; and it will change everything from what you put into your car to what you see on your electric bill. But the payoff for America will be more than just cleaner air. It will inspire Americans to something we haven’t seen in a long time--nation-building in America--by summoning the intelligence, creativity, boldness, and concern for the common good that are our nation’s greatest natural resources.
Hot, Flat, and Crowded is classic Thomas L. Friedman: fearless, incisive, forward-looking, and rich in surprising common sense about the challenge--and the promise--of the future.
Annotation:
Columnist Thomas L. Friedman explains why, in a globalized world, crises in energy and the climate must be priorities. Friedman argues further that a globalized world makes it possible as never before to address these issues in a meaningful way, and with positive and significant results. The United States is uniquely positioned to take a lead in this initiative, says Friedman: by working to make the world safer and cleaner, we make America more secure. As always, Friedman is insightful both in diagnosing the problem and in offering solutions, as he describes specific technologies that would be central to a national policy of "geo-greenism." Most importantly, he makes no bones about the fact that the commitment to change must be immediate, and significant. Selected by the New York Times Book Review as a Notable Book of 2008.
| Praise| "[A]ccessible to the eco-unconverted, [HOT, FLAT, AND CROWDED] is grounded in detailed research and repeatedly hits its mark....Above all, it is fundamentally right on the biggest question of our age. If Friedman's profile and verve take his message where it needs to be heard, into the boardrooms of America and beyond, that can only be good--for all our sakes." - Jonathan Freedland 10/05/2008 "The author comes across as a blend of Will Rogers, Jack Welch and Norman Vincent Peale--a plain-spoken citizen outraged at the bullheadedness of U.S. politicians, yet optimistic about the power of ingenuity and finely crafted policy to avert disaster." - Daniel Gross 09/13/2008 "Surprising material is scattered throughout, and the final sections may be the book's most rewarding. Its very sprawl emphasizes the scale of these problems and allows the author to make a strong case for the possibility and necessity of addressing them. With a tone of urgent hopefulness--or "sober optimism," as he says--he beseeches voters, executives, and politicians to get on with it." - Adam Aston 09/11/2008 "HOT, FLAT, AND CROWDED is a compelling manifesto that deserves a wide reading, especially by members of Congress and candidates for president." - Bill Williams 09/17/2008 "Like it or not, we need Tom Friedman. The peripatetic columnist has made himself a major interpreter of the confusing world we inhabit. He travels to the farthest reaches, interviews everyone from peasants to chief executives and expresses big ideas in clear and memorable prose. While pettifogging academics (a select few of whom he favors) complain that his catchy phrases and anecdotes sometimes obscure deeper analysis, by and large Friedman gets the big issues right." - Joseph S. Nye 09/07/2008 "[Friedman's] basic policy guidelines, and most of his specific suggestions...are sound. He really does get globalization, in a way only ceaseless travelers can...." - Bill McKibben 11/06/2009 |
| Author Bio| Thomas L. Friedman | | Thomas L. Friedman's journey to his prestigious and influential position as Op-Ed columnist for the New York Times began early; he credits his high school teachers for instilling in him a "love of writing" and a "passion for journalism." Friedman was educated at Brandeis University, where he earned his B.A., and Oxford University, where he earned a Master of Philosophy degree in Middle East studies. He also attended the American University in Cairo. Friedman won two Pulitzer Prizes for his reporting in the 1980s, when he served first as bureau chief in Beirut and later as bureau chief in Jerusalem for the New York Times. His first book, FROM BEIRUT TO JERUSALEM (1989) recounts his experiences in those cities, and it was followed in 2000 by THE LEXUS AND THE OLIVE TREE, his first work on globalization.||In 2005, Friedman published THE WORLD IS FLAT, a major statement on globalization whose provocative world view and common-sense explanations helped make it a bestseller. It also showed, as he explicitly states, how much the world had changed since his earlier books. Friedman welcomes the exciting new world of globalization and the many opportunities it offers, but he advises that America needs to be better prepared if it is to maintain its lead in a globalized, flat world.||Thomas Friedman's columns in the New York Times are avidly read by fans for their rational, centrist views of current events, and for the high caliber of their writing. In 2006, Friedman's achievements were honored when he was named a Pulitzer judge. |
| |
|
|
