The way that the essays in this book differ from his other work in FROM BEIRUT TO JERUSALEM and THE LEXUS AND THE OLIVE TREE is the intensely personal tone of many of the essays. Friedman often writes not from an objective point of view, but of how he is feeling, what he is thinking as he reflects on the fallen Towers, and of his own very specific reactions. In this way, these essays contain strong elements of memoir. A hundred years from now, they will be read as one very intelligent and perceptive journalist's reactions to one of the most traumatic disasters in American history. They are valuable as much for emotional reflections as for his objective analyses. The genius of these essays derives from the fact that he in no way attempts to minimize the tragedy and horror of 9/11, while in no way ignoring his own grief and perplexity or, and this is the tough part, losing his remarkable perspective as a journalist or resorting to trite generalizations to explain and analyze the greater global situation.

For fans of Friedman's columns and previous books, this will be an immensely satisfying book. For those unfamiliar with his other work, they will find here a work of great insight and emotional honesty on perhaps the great horror in American history since Vietnam and perhaps Pearl Harbor. I recommend this book in the strongest possible terms.


Read Tom Friedman, then read him all over again!   August 26, 2002
 91 out of 113 found this review helpful

This is a superb collection of Tom Friedman's New York Times columns, plus personal commentaries on the circumstances behind those columns since 9/11. What an extraordinarily insightful book. I couldn't put it down, even though I'd read virtually all of Friedman's columns when they first appeared in The Times. His prose is wonderfully lucid and colloquial; it helps us understand the increasingly bewildering world around us--and within us. Friedman shares his interesting and intriguing experiences with his readers, and we are all wiser and humbler for it. Read Tom Friedman, then read him all over again!


Smart Collection for keepsake   August 30, 2002
 52 out of 58 found this review helpful

I hadn't read any of Mr. Friedmans columns as they came out, after reading this I will be sure to make it a habit. This collection is something you may want as a keepsake for this era. This is not just 911, this is momentous world events and directional changes world wide for and in part concerning this new world we live in due to the September events. When these commentaries are assembled here in book form, you can clearly see a new direction we are headed by world actions, thus the title is born, Longitudes and Attitudes. This can be frightening to some, real world sentiment is explored. Our direction has been permanately changed, I am convinced of that after reading the book, but was not beforehand, I was one to think, "This will vanish". Very informative and causes real awareness. I wish to recommend a book that carries on from here and did predict the terrorism to include real world attitude, SB: 1 or God by Karl Mark Maddox


A Little Something for Everyone?   October 31, 2002
 41 out of 51 found this review helpful

I've long suspected that what most people like about Tom Friedman is his ability to express ideas and feelings they themselves have been struggling to articulate. He boasts of this skill in the introduction to Longitudes and Attitudes (xi). I've also suspected that people often find themselves in agreement with Friedman because he changes his mind so often that within a few pages he's managed to take every possible side of any given question.

In his September 13, 2001 entry Friedman repeats the oft-heard critique that the Arab world is woefully lacking in democratically-elected governments, and is instead populated by leaders who tolerate no dissent. He is, of course, correct in this observation. But his very next entry (Sept. 14) paints the Muslim world as fighting a "civil war" in which "we need to strengthen the good guys" in Egypt, Algeria, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and Pakistan. Who are these good guys he wants to strengthen, how, and to what end? Does Friedman want Arab democracy or not? The answer seems to come in his next entry (Sept. 18), in which he calls Jordan's King `Abd'allah "one of America's real friends," and adds that "Jordan is a country with a decent government... [and] is becoming a good Arab model for how to do things right." It appears that Friedman's desire for democratically-elected Arab governments has lasted all of four days. He seems now to prefer a near-bankrupt hereditary monarchy that has thrice squashed its own parliament when they proved too "democratic" (i.e., anti-Israel) for the king's foreign-policy requirements. Ah, but by June 19, 2002, he's changed his mind yet again, and praises the Iranian experiment in democracy, `Axis of Evil' notwithstanding.

What are the main reasons that Jordan wins his praise? Friedman points out that Amman is "drawing US investors," and is "the first Arab country to sign a free-trade agreement with the United States..." He is equally garish in his suggestion (Oct. 16, 2001) that the Saudi Prince al-Walid "do something useful with [his] $10 million... endow American Studies departments in all Saudi universities." In his next essay he rattles off a list of what "we need" to make America safer: Muslim allies, cooperative Arab leaders, cooperative Muslim spiritual leaders, and "to begin taking seriously the task of improving governance in these failing states."His November 13 essay on the Pakistani "street" concludes with a plea for Americans to "return armed with modern books and schools..." to create, "a generation as hospitable to our policies as to our burgers."

This, then, is Friedman's one recurring and (mostly) consistent mantra: the United States is not doing enough to make the Muslim world more useful to and compliant with American interests.

It is, however, marvelously Friedmanesque that he can hold this world-view and simultaneously criticize the Bush administration for its America-First unilateralism. That, in turn is no more of a contradiction than Friedman's opposition to the erosion of personal liberties in the fight against terrorism, while simultaneously mocking Silicon Valley executives for being paranoid about the government's desire for the "Clipper Chip" that would give "the government a back-door key to all US encrypted data." (May 26, 2002).

If reviewing a book of newspaper editorials is difficult, then offering a critique of a Pulitzer Prize-winning author is nothing short of futile. Friedman's book was a best-seller from the moment it was unloaded from the delivery trucks. I cannot offer any insight into whether it makes for satisfying reading for those with a modicum of knowledge about the Middle East. It is not, however, a scholarly work, nor of value to scholars, other than perhaps as a time capsule of an articulate and well-traveled man's day-by-day impressions in the year following September 11th.


The Song Remains the Same   December 4, 2002
 40 out of 42 found this review helpful

Thomas Friedman breaks no new ground with this book. He doesn't have to. The bulk of "Longitudes & Attitudes" is a collection of his regular New York Times columns from December 2000 until July 2002. Friedman regulars will have read most or all of these columns, and even his occasional readers will be familiar with the handful of pieces that have gained fame for the clarity of their vision and their new insights into old problems. Friedman's message is simple. Anti-democratic Arab regimes conspire with radical Muslim clerics throughout the Middle East in an unholy alliance to maintain the illegitimate governments in power with the support of religious leaders spewing medieval backwardness and hatred. The U.S. props up many of these regimes in the name of an expedient short-term stability aimed at milking them of their oil reserves. Who suffers? Everyone. Arab societies are trapped in a backward-looking anti-modernist world of illiteracy, intolerance, repression of women, and censorship. A foreseeable by-product are hate-filled xenophobic young men who would rather kill themselves and thousands of innocents than search for creative solutions to this seemingly intractable impasse. Against this backdrop always looms the Israeli/Palestinian conflict which fuels the flames of anti-Western rhetoric while simultaneously distracting Arab societies from the pressing need to reform themselves. And this conflict can not be resolved until Israelis withdraw from their settlements in Palestinian areas and until Yasir Arafat is no longer a player.

Friedman sounds this drumbeat over and over, with anecdotes, insights, analysis, and ruminations. His language is as simple as his message and has won him three Pulitzer Prizes. He is an unabashed American patriot with excellent contacts throughout the region. He is not an academic, but someone who has a heart, passion, skill, and is gifted with the ability to make sense of chaos and to find threads of music in cacophony. Thomas Friedman is an excellent writer.