Sunday, July 31, 2005

The New York Review of Books: The World Is Round

The New York Review of Books: The World Is Round: "As it has done in the past, globalization is throwing up dilemmas that have no satisfactory solution. That does not mean they cannot be more or less intelligently managed, but what is needed is the opposite of the utopian imagination. In a curious twist, the utopian mind has migrated from left to right, and from the academy to the airport bookshop. In the nineteenth century it was political activists and radical social theorists such as Marx who held out the promise that new technology was creating a new world. Today some business gurus have a similar message. There are many books announcing a global economic transformation and suggesting that governments can be reengineered to adapt to it in much the same way as corporations. The World Is Flat is an outstanding example of this genre."

Thoughtful and timely essay/review.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Good article, but if Friedman's book had been called "The World Has A Bunch Of Flat Spots Separated By Not Flat Spots" I don't think it would have sold quite as well. :-)

-rhs