Skim. That's my advice. Friedman certainly understands the way the world works in these post- Cold War days, but he tends to pad his ideas with more illustrations than are necessary.

Another thing: you have to have a certain amount of curiosity about the world economy in order to enjoy thus book. If it's forced upon you, I can see why you might not like it.

But as far as his ideas go, he's hard to argue with. Planned economies cannot compete with market economies. That's what is at the core of this book. The rest is about the best way to organize society around the market to take advantage of its efficiency and use it to benefit the greatest number of people.

It may seem like Friedman is cold and unfeeling, but so is the system. He's just giving the practical view of things. ( )

This book does incredibly well in explaining the complicated topic of globalization. It's very readable but is not dumbed-down in any manner. Mr. Friedman tries hard to be objective with his views of the world. Although on some chapters, you can tell that he belongs to the optimistic group of the globalization debate. Whether or not you agree with his perspective, it still is worthwhile to read to see if his pronouncements will atleast challenge your own position. ( )

Looks at globalization from a social, economic, and cultural perspective and assesses the impact of this trend

Well, at least the book wears its age on its sleeve...

My feelings on The Lexus and the Olive Tree are very complicated. Personally, I think Friedman does a very good job of conveying (read: teaching) his ideas, and because of this, TLOT is a great teaching tool, especially if you are looking for primer reading on the post-Globalization international system. This is a big point, and although some of what Friedman writes is outdated or bad predictions, this can't be understated.

Then comes the other part. A lot of the negatives are explained in the other comments, so for both our sakes, I'll simply enumerate the main critiques. First, there is a lot of teaching through anecdotes or personal stories. From an empirical standpoint, there are problems with that, but it just comes off as bad tone, even if Friedman gets the job done. Second, there are A LOT of allegories and "fluffed up terms." Friedman toes the line between simile and metaphor with these: its one thing to call investors "long and short horn cattle," as a way of visualizing investors, but referring to investors as long or short horn cattle throughout the book is another thing. It comes off a bit demeaning, and harms the teaching aspect of the book.

Lots of problems, but frankly, there isn't a post-Globalization equivalent yet... ( )

I picked this early book by Thomas Friedman after reading his latter book 'The World is Flat' fascinated by globalisation and details of its spread. The book enhanced my understanding about globalisation as a new system replacing old Cold War system. Lexus (depicting modern / latest) emerging alongside Olive Tree (ancient / traditional forces of culture and community) is the core theme of the book. Highly detailed book on the subject. ( )