Thomas L. Friedman, The World is Flat

Last week I finished wading through Thomas L. Friedman's The World is Flat. This is an important book.I've read a few books on globalization, but Friedman's work is the most thorough, accessible, and interesting account I've read of this "flat" world we now find ourselves in. I give 5 stars to the first 250 pages in which Friedman provides a comprehensive and surprisingly interesting narrative of the origin and development of today's globalized world. I had a hard time putting this first half of the book down.To the second half of the book, the final 250 pages, I'd give 3 1/2 stars. I found Friedman much too repetitive in this section and his thoughts on how to respond to today's flat world were simply not as articulate as his account of how this flat world came to be. I skimmed a fair bit of this second half. It's astonishing to me that there's now an expanded edition of the book. I'm glad I read the un-expanded edition.Friedman gave me much to think about. Today's flat world presents the church with a host of new opportunities and dangers that didn't exist in previous generations. It's an exciting time to be doing ministry.