Bestselling author of “The World is Flat” and New York Times foreign affairs columnist Thomas L. Friedman will speak at Fresno State at 6:30 p.m. April 19 at the Save Mart Center.
The lecture is free and open to the public. Parking is free. Doors opens at 5:30 p.m. Books will be available for purchase and a book signing will follow the lecture.
Friedman is renowned for his direct reporting and sophisticated analysis of complex issues facing the world. According to Foreign Policy magazine, “Friedman doesn’t just report on events; he helps shape them.”
Winner of three Pulitzer Prizes, he has covered monumental stories from around the globe for The New York Times since 1981. Vanity Fair called him “the country’s best newspaper columnist.”
In his new bestseller, “Thank You For Being Late: An Optimist’s Guide to Thriving in the Age of Accelerations,” Friedman offers a blueprint for overcoming the stresses and challenges of a world being transformed by technology, globalization and climate change.
His previous New York Times bestseller, co-written with Michael Mandelbaum, was “That Used to Be Us: How America Fell Behind in the World It Invented and How We Can Come Back.”
Friedman’s “The World is Flat” has sold 4.5 million copies and won the inaugural Financial Times and Goldman Sachs Business Book of the Year Award. In 2012 Friedman updated his National Book Award-winner, “From Beirut to Jerusalem,” adding a fresh discussion of the Arab Awakenings and Arab/Israeli relations in a new preface and afterword.
Friedman’s “Hot, Flat and Crowded: Why We Need a Green Revolution — and How It Can Renew America,” was a No. 1 New York Times bestseller. Friedman’s other bestsellers include “Longitudes and Attitudes: The World in the Age of Terrorism” and “The Lexus and the Olive Tree.”
Ranked No. 2 on The Wall Street Journal’s list of “influential business thinkers,” named to the 2011 Thinkers50 and the 2013 list of Foreign Policy’s Top Global Thinkers, and considered one of “America’s Best Leaders” by U.S. News and World Report, Friedman is a frequent guest on programs such as “Meet The Press,” “Morning Joe” and “Charlie Rose.” He is featured in Showtime’s climate change documentary series “Years of Living Dangerously.”
In awarding Friedman his third Pulitzer Prize, the Pulitzer board cited his “clarity of vision, based on extensive reporting, in commenting on the worldwide impact of the terrorist threat.”
His appearance at Fresno State is sponsored by KSEE24, The Fresno Bee and ValleyPBS.
