A New York Times Notable Book of the Year

A Washington Post Best Book of the Year

A Businessweek Best Business Book of the Year

A Chicago Tribune Best Book of the Year

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. 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.

Not a quick read to take to the beach on a summer afternoon, but the topic and ideas presented are too important to ignore. People sometimes quickly dismiss books about environmental issues, assuming it will lead to the condemning of science, technology, and societal advances, instead proposing a regression toward a simpler 1800's style lifestyle. What makes the book different to me is that Friedman has researched and described solutions which exist, have been proven, make both environmental as well as economic sense. The U.S. has faced significant downturns in the housing market, the stock market, banking, a continuing energy crisis, volatile and soaring gasoline prices, Detroit now stuck with 20th century vehicles no longer suitable for the 21st century, soaring budget deficits, and a do-nothing Congress locked in ideological finger pointing. Perhaps the culmination of all these problems arising at the same time is that the public will read this book and clamor for solutions.
~Katrina