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Thomas Friedman Biography, Books, and Similar Authors

Author Biography  | Books by this Author  | Read-Alikes

Thomas Friedman

Thomas Friedman

Thomas Friedman Biography

Thomas L. Friedman, a world-renowned author and journalist, joined The New York Times in 1981 as a financial reporter specializing in OPEC- and oil-related news and later served as the chief diplomatic, chief White House, and international economics correspondents. A three-time Pulitzer Prize winner, he has traveled hundreds of thousands of miles reporting 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. His foreign affairs column, which appears twice a week in the Times, is syndicated to seven hundred other newspapers worldwide.

Friedman is the author of From Beirut to Jerusalem (FSG, 1989), which won both the National Book Award and the Overseas Press Club Award in 1989 and was on the New York Times bestseller list for nearly twelve months. From Beirut to Jerusalem has been published in more than twenty-seven languages, including Chinese and Japanese, and is now used as a basic textbook on the Middle East in many high schools and universities. Friedman also wrote The Lexus and the Olive Tree (FSG, 1999), one of the best selling business books in 1999, and the winner of the 2000 Overseas Press Club Award for best nonfiction book on foreign policy. It is now available in twenty languages. His last book, Longitudes and Attitudes: Exploring the World After September 11, issued by FSG in 2002, consists of columns Friedman published about September 11 as well as a diary of his private experiences and reflections during his reporting on the post-September world as he traveled from Afghanistan to Israel to Europe to Indonesia to Saudi Arabia. In 2005, The World Is Flat was given the first Financial Times and Goldman Sachs Business Book of the Year Award, and Friedman was named one of America's Best Leaders by U.S. News & World Report. Friedman's other books include Hot, Flat, and Crowded: Why We Need a Green Revolution—And How It Can Renew America, published in 2008.

Friedman graduated summa cum laude from Brandeis University with a degree in Mediterranean studies and received a master's degree in modern Middle East studies from Oxford. He has served as a visiting professor at Harvard University and has been awarded honorary degrees from several U.S. universities. He lives in Bethesda, Maryland, with his wife, Ann, and their two daughters.

Thomas Friedman's website

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Books by this Author

Books by Thomas Friedman at BookBrowse
Hot, Flat, and Crowded jacket The World Is Flat jacket Longitudes and Attitudes jacket The Lexus and The Olive Tree jacket
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Read-Alikes

All the books below are recommended as read-alikes for Thomas Friedman but some maybe more relevant to you than others depending on which books by the author you have read and enjoyed. So look for the suggested read-alikes by title linked on the right.
How we choose read-alikes

  • Jared Diamond

    Jared Diamond

    Jared Diamond, a noted polymath, is Professor of Geography at the University of California, Los Angeles. Among his many awards are the U.S. National Medal of Science, Japan's Cosmos Prize, a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship, a... (more)

    If you enjoyed:
    The Lexus and The Olive Tree

    Try:
    Guns, Germs & Steel
    by Jared Diamond

  • Stephen J. Dubner

    Stephen J. Dubner

    The eighth child of an upstate New York newspaperman, Stephan J. Dubner has been writing since he was a child. As an undergraduate at Appalachian State University, he started a rock band that was signed to Arista Records, ... (more)

    If you enjoyed:
    The Lexus and The Olive Tree

    Try:
    Freakonomics
    by Stephen J. Dubner

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