Thomas L. Friedman is a very well-educated and experienced award-winning, best-selling author who is extremely capable of presenting a book with important historical background, powerful images, and a defined purpose. He first attended Brandeis University, where he graduated Summa Cum Laude in 1975 with a degree in Mediterranean Studies. During his undergraduate years there, he spent semesters abroad at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the American University in Cairo. After he completed his B.A., Friedman attended St. Antony's College of Oxford University on a Marshall Scholarship. By 1978, he attained his master's degree in Modern Middle East Studies from Oxford and immediately joined the London Bureau of United Press International. He spent a year there doing general assignment reporting and then was dispatched to Beirut as a UPI correspondent.

He was there for two years until he was hired by The New York Times. He worked as a...