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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 --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Drama Of The Globalization Era,
By Caitlin Meyers (KS USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Lexus and the Olive Tree: Understanding Globalization (Paperback)
The Lexus And The Olive Tree was recommended to me by my Economics teacher. After reading it I can see why she thought I should use this book for my assignment. It is about Thomas L. Friedman's original look on the new international system. This new system is known as globilization and it has replaced, as Friedman would call it, "the Cold War system." Globalization has changed how we invest, our technology, and ways of communication while shaping world affairs today. Friedman uses the conflict of "the Lexus and the olive tree" to help explain the concepts of globalization verse ancient forces of tradition. The olive tree represents everything that roots us, like family, community, religion, or a place called home. The Lexus represents all the financial institutions and computer technologies found in the global market today. I enjoyed reading this book because it gave me a better understanding of globalization. Something that I had never really heard of before reading it. Friedman did a very good job of showing the advantages and disadvantages of this new international system. His vivid stories helped explain a lot of what he was trying to tell the reader. There still was some things that I didn't understand completely. This is just because I'm new at this economics thing, and I didn't know a lot about the history behind some of his concepts. After reading this book I feel that America homogenizes countries too much. And we do it for our own needs. We do it to make them more accessible to us so we can use their resources. This is just my opinion on the whole thing after reading the book.
4.0 out of 5 stars
Globalization - It's a GOOD THING...,
By A Customer
This review is from: The Lexus and the Olive Tree: Understanding Globalization (Paperback)
Finally a book that describes the era of globalization and development of free market economies in a way that promotes the good side of the equation! Very understandable book that uses real stories by the author that illustrate what is going on in the world with respect to globalization. Especially recommended read for those folks who may have been involved in the demonstrations against it.
3.0 out of 5 stars
Sort of rambles, has some great anecdotes and analogies.,
By
This review is from: The Lexus and the Olive Tree: Understanding Globalization (Paperback)
The Lexus and the Olive Tree is an important book, but in many ways Thomas Friedman renders his own creation irrelevant. He is almost schizophrenic in his writing style, arguing with himself as if he has yet to make up his mind about the things he is writing. In some ways, it seems like he just prefers to share anecdotes (which are vivid and usually humorous) from his travels around the world, rather than the typical kinds of fact-based research one finds in these sort of books. The result is that the reader can understand some of the concepts, but they can also get a little tedious, and it is hard to translate the anecdotes into something that I assimilate into my worldview.Furthermore, Friedman seems to love to quote people at length, but one wonders if indeed he is quoting word-for-word, or if he is just sort of crafting something to fit his book out of a vaguely similar comment the person may have made. But, then one thinks again, because the book is almost a little choppy in places because Friedman quotes random characters from all around the world for pages upon pages. One would prefer that he just paraphrase or use shorter quotes. Because it was written 5 years ago, some of the reading is tedious (he explains what a DVD player is, for example), and in some areas he seems to be caught up in the "irrational" dot-com whirlwind. In his revised version of the book, it sort of just drones on, pontificating for about 20-30 pages too much. Thomas Friedman is a very personable guy, and he has a lot of interesting things to say about the world, but honestly, one doesn't care for his own political/religious philosophy being injected, mostly toward the end of the book. It was just awkward to read through the final chapter or two; the book has multiple personality disorder in some regards. One almost feel like the book is written for an audience of Dick Gephardts. He wants to win the protectionist wing of the Democratic Party over with the book. He seems to be speaking to them. Maybe he is speaking to Republicans as well, but if so, he lectures a little too sanctimoniously on the environment and the notion of a social safety net (he calls Republicans "mean-spirited voices... uninterested in any compromise" and tries to argue that Africa, with its near-anarchy in places, would be a Republican's dream) to win conservatives over entirely. He sort of just randomly breaks into prostheletyzing, arguing, for example, "That the NRA should feel guilty about the Colombine massacres went without saying." Why even go into that? That's just tacky. Finally, a reader gets sort of annoyed reading his own made-up terms (Golden Straightjacket, Electronic Herd, etc.), over and over, particularly since none of them caught on whatsoever in the past half-decade since the book came out.
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