Library of Congress: 'Thomas Friedman & Michael Mandelbaum: 2012 National Book Festival'

Source:Library of Congress- New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman.

"Thomas Friedman & Michael Mandelbaum appear at the 2012 Library of Congress National Book Festival.

Speaker Biography: Three-time Pulitzer Prize winner Thomas L. Friedman writes a syndicated column for The New York Times. His book "Hot, Flat and Crowded" was an international best-seller. He has worked for The Times since 1981 and a year later was appointed Beirut bureau chief, six weeks before the Israeli invasion of Lebanon. His column on foreign affairs began in 1995. His 2005 book, "The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century," was a No. 1 New York Times best-seller and has sold more than 4 million copies. His new book, the best-seller "That Used to Be Us: How America Fell Behind in the World It Invented and How We Can Come Back," was written with Johns Hopkins University professor Michael Mandelbaum.

Speaker Biography: Michael Mandelbaum is the Christian A. Herter professor and director of the American Foreign Policy program at Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies. He has written 10 books on U.S. foreign policy, and Foreign Policy magazine has called him one of the top 100 Global Thinkers. Mandelbaum is also on the board of directors of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. He most recently co-wrote "That Used to Be Us: How America Fell Behind in the World It Invented and How We Can Come Back" with New York Times columnist Thomas L. Friedman." 

From the Library of Congress

I guess a Patriot or a Nationalist in its best form at least to me is someone who loves their country so much that they don't want to see it fail or do badly. So when things are good, they are the first to praise their country and when things aren't going as well as they should or could be doing. 

A Patriot (let's say) would say: "Look, this is an area where we are lacking and need to make some changes here to make it work as well as we need it to." I believe thats the message of Tom Friedman and Mike Mandelbaum, that they didn't write a book to bash the United States like some Socialist or Jihadist, but they truly love America their country and are seeing a country thats not doing very well right now and want it to do better because they believe it can and has to do better for the sake of the country and for the world. 

I probably don't agree with everything in the Friedman/Mandelbaum plan but at least they have one and are on the right course.