Thomas Friedman is an American journalist who is best known as an opinion columnist for The New York Times, where he has worked since 1981. He also achieved public fame as the author of the bestselling book The World Is Flat, a massive bestseller that arguably did more than any other book to popularize the modern notion of globalization. Born and raised in Minnesota, Friedman developed an early fascination with the Middle East when his Jewish family took him to visit Israel as a teenager in 1968, shortly after its victory in the Six-Day War of June 1967, which fundamentally reshaped the politics of the region. He earned his bachelor’s in Mediterranean studies from Brandeis University in Massachusetts and then a master’s degree in Middle East studies at Oxford University.

After completing his studies, he began reporting from Beirut, Lebanon, in 1979, a country that was then in the midst of a gruesome civil war. Through the 1980s, he lived and worked extensively in Beirut and Jerusalem, the period he recalls in 1989’s appropriately titled From Beirut to Jerusalem, the National Book Award-winning memoir that first established his public profile. Switching into his current columnist role in 1995, Friedman has been among the most influential American journalists, with ready access to power players in Washington and around the world.