Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times columnist and author Thomas L. Friedman will discuss globalization and the digital revolution in a lecture at MIT on Monday, May 16.
A world-renowned author and journalist, Friedman will also be signing his latest book, "The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century."
Friedman's speech will focus on the convergence of technology that has allowed India, China and so many other countries to become part of the global supply chain for services and manufacturing, giving them a huge new stake in the success of the global economy.
Friedman will also discuss whether this "flattening" of the globe has created a world too small and too fast for human beings and their political systems to adjust to in a stable manner.
The lecture, "The World Is Flat," will take place at 4 p.m. in Room 10-250 and is open to the public. The book signing and reception will be held in MIT's Bush Room, Room 10-105.
Friedman has won three Pulitzer Prizes, two for international reporting (in 1983 and 1988) and one for commentary (in 2001). He is currently the foreign affairs columnist for The New York Times. His column, which appears twice a week in The New York Times, is syndicated to 700 newspapers worldwide.
Friedman joined The New York Times in 1981 as a financial reporter specializing in OPEC and oil-related news and has served as chief diplomatic correspondent, chief White House correspondent and international economics correspondent. He has traveled hundreds of thousands of miles reporting on the Middle East conflict, the end of the Cold War, U.S. domestic politics and foreign policy, international economics, and the worldwide impact of the terrorist threat.
MIT President Emeritus Charles M. Vest will introduce Friedman. Copies of "The World Is Flat" (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, April 2005) will be available for purchase. This event is sponsored by the MIT OpenCourseWare project (online at http://ocw.mit.edu).
A version of this article appeared in MIT Tech Talk on May 11, 2005 (download PDF).
