Military Professional Reading Lists

Hot, Flat, and Crowded: Why We Need a Green Revolution--and How It Can Renew America

Thomas L. Friedman

In this brilliant, essential book, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Thomas L. Friedman speaks to America's urgent need for national renewal and explains how a green revolution can bring about both a sustainable environment and a sustainable America.

Friedman explains how global warming, rapidly growing populations, and the expansion of the world’s middle class through globalization have produced a dangerously unstable planet--one that is "hot, flat, and crowded." In this Release 2.0 edition, he also shows how the very habits that led us to ravage the natural world led to the meltdown of the financial markets and the Great Recession. The challenge of a sustainable way of life presents the United States with an opportunity not only to rebuild its economy, but to lead the world in radically innovating toward cleaner energy. And it could inspire Americans to something we haven't seen in a long time--nation-building in America--by summoning the intelligence, creativity, and concern for the common good that are our greatest national resources.

Hot, Flat, and Crowded is classic Thomas L. Friedman: fearless, incisive, forward-looking, and rich in surprising common sense about the challenge--and the promise--of the future.

Hot, Flat, and Crowded: Why We Need a Green Revolution--and How It Can Renew America is (well, used to be) on these list(s): JFSC

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I've read this book

Tom Copeland read this book almost 2 years ago and commented:
Thomas Friedman is a lively writer and is enthusiastic about green jobs and energy efficiency and all that. One of his primary source in this book, however, is the IPCC, who is now in the process of admitting that their data was not as rock-solid as they had claimed. Friedman also offers solutions like a huge gas tax to make solar/wind more cost-effective - which is easy for him to say, but not so great for the E4 struggling along on $2K per month. There's also Friedman's "China for a Day (but not two)" where he bemoans the democratic process which prevents the technocrats from imposing their will on the ignorant masses. So despite his engaging style and the many interesting anecdotes, I don't think this was a good selection.