Thomas Friedman's New book is out in Lebanon

[shekib82]

It is called "That Used to Be Us: How America Fell Behind in the World It Invented and How We Can Come Back"

it is supposed to be out in America on September 5th 2011, yet I saw it yesterday at a local library chain here in Lebanon. We never get books this early. It is strange.

 

[editec]

FWIW an interview with Freidman

What do you hope this book will achieve?
The book is a “how to” book for America and for Americans to thrive in the 21st century. It is a book that basically says that our country is in the worst kind of decline, a slow decline, [and it goes into] how we got into this downward spiral, why we can get out of it, how we [can] get out of it.
How do we get out of it?

We get out of it by falling back on the great traditions that actually held us for 235 years, emphasizing education, infrastructure, immigration, the right rules and regulations for risk taking, and government funding research. All of that used to be us and can be again.
In the book you say that as a country we need to refocus our values. Is our political system properly equipped to respond to that and the other challenges addressed in the book?
We have gone from sustainable values of the Greatest Generation, always behaving in a way that sustains, to situational values of the baby boomer generation, just do whatever the situation allows. And we have to get back to sustainable values if we want to thrive as a country.
The whole book is really about the challenge to the political system and why we need a third party. These two parties can no longer produce the answers that we need as a country to remain a great country