Longitudes and Attitudes, by Thomas Friedman :: September 11th Essays

Longitudes and Attitudes, written by Thomas Friedman, is a collection of columns, broken by September 11ths great catastrophe and including real from his diary. The book displays his outstanding strengths as a commentator along with a few weaknesses.Longitudes and Attitudes is a collection of his more recent columns and a diary of supporting incidents. It relates to the theme that has consumed him in his career. This theme is given point by Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the attack of 9/11.Born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Tom Friedman went to work as a journalist in Beirut, Lebanon soon after securing a masters degree from Oxford University in Middle easterlyern Studies. Employed by United Press world-wide in 1978, he soon transferred to the New York Times and covered the Syrian destruction of that countrys own town of Hama, the Israeli Lebanese invasion, the murder of Palestinians in refugee camps, the evacuation of the Palestinian Liberation Organization, etc. In 1995, he be came the foreign affairs columnist for the New York Times with carte blanche--unlimited travel cipher and no supervision as to content. He has written two books and collected three Pulitzer Prizes. In his current job, Friedman writes a 740-word column twice a week. It appears in many of the worlds newspapers and on the Web. This latest book, Longitudes and Attitudes, is a compendium of his more recent columns and a diary of supporting incidents. The text relates to the theme that has consumed him in his career the failure of the Arab nation to develop, democratize, and compete properly with the West. This theme is given point by the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the attack of 9/11.Friedmans ideas are presented in general through and through many columns that he had written for he New York Times. Their datelines stretch from December 15, 2000 to April 20, 2003 and from Jerusalem, Israel to Peshawar, Pakistan.In this book, Friedman presents a coherent picture of forces in the Mid dle East that have led to the Israeli- Palestinian confrontation and to bin Laden and his group of terrorists. Friedmans articles describe meetings, discussions, and arguments he had with people at all levels of society through out the Middle East. From his extensive travels and through dynamic interactions with the people he derived intense insights into how 9/11 came about, why, and what should be done about it.His arguments and conclusions are well up thought through, so much that they draw opponents to reason with him.