Thomas L. Friedman, best-selling author and New York Times foreign affairs columnist, will speak at 7 p.m., Tuesday, Dec. 8, in Brown Theatre, as part of the University of Louisiana at Monroe’s Presidential Lyceum Series.

Friedman is a three-time Pulitzer Prize winner touted by Vanity Fair magazine as “the country’s best newspaper columnist.” Friedman has reported on numerous stories considered pivotal in American foreign policy in recent decades.

In his best-selling book, "The World is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century", Thomas L. Friedman demystifies how the world “flattened” at the dawn of the 21st-century and explains the cultural, political and economic implications on all of us.

"The World is Flat" earned the Financial Times and Goldman Sachs Business Book of the Year Award in 2005, the same year that U.S. News & World Report named Friedman one of “America's Best Leaders.” ULM included the book in its freshman summer reading program this year.

Friedman’s most recent work is "Hot, Flat and Crowded: Why We Need a Green Revolution - And How It Can Renew America", another bestseller.

“ULM is fortunate to add Mr. Friedman to the growing list of notable speakers we have hosted in the last several years,” said ULM President James E. Cofer Sr. “His books cogently addresses the myriad of issues stemming from globalization and spells out in precise terms what one must do to compete amid these ever-changing realities.”

A book signing will follow Friedman’s lecture to the public; a Patron Party at 5:30 p.m. will precede it. Student admission is free and ULM faculty and staff tickets are $10 for the event. General admission tickets are $25, while tickets for the Patron Party, where guests will get the chance to meet Friedman, are $75.

Tickets are on sale at www.ulmtickets.com or at La Capitol Bank on the ULM campus (#6 on the ULM campus map.)

More about Thomas L. Friedman

Friedman has authored three previous books, all of them bestsellers: From Beirut to Jerusalem, winner of the National Book Award for nonfiction; The Lexus and the Olive Tree: Understanding Globalization; and Longitudes and Attitudes: Exploring the World After September 11.

A world-renowned author and journalist, Friedman joined The New York Times in 1981 as a financial reporter specializing in OPEC- and oil-related news and later served as the chief diplomatic, chief White House, and international economics correspondents.

A three-time Pulitzer Prize winner, he has traveled hundreds of thousands of miles reporting the Middle East conflict, the end of the cold war, U.S. domestic politics and foreign policy, international economics, and the worldwide impact of the terrorist threat. His foreign affairs column, which appears twice a week in the Times, is syndicated to one hundred other newspapers worldwide.

Friedman is the author of From Beirut to Jerusalem (FSG, 1989), which won both the National Book Award and the Overseas Press Club Award in 1989 and was on The New York Times bestseller list for nearly twelve months. From Beirut to Jerusalem has been published in more than twenty-seven languages, including Chinese and Japanese, and is now used as a basic textbook on the Middle East in many high schools and universities.

Friedman also wrote The Lexus and the Olive Tree (FSG, 1999), one of the best selling business books in 1999, and the winner of the 2000 Overseas Press Club Award for best nonfiction book on foreign policy. It is now available in twenty languages.

Longitudes and Attitudes: Exploring the World After September 11, issued by FSG in 2002, consists of columns Friedman published about September 11 as well as a diary of his private experiences and reflections during his reporting on the post-September world as he traveled from Afghanistan to Israel to Europe to Indonesia to Saudi Arabia.

In 2005, The World Is Flat was given the first Financial Times and Goldman Sachs Business Book of the Year Award, and Friedman was named one of America's Best Leaders by U.S. News & World Report.

Friedman graduated summa cum laude from Brandeis University with a degree in Mediterranean studies and received a master's degree in modern Middle East studies from Oxford. He has served as a visiting professor at Harvard University and has been awarded honorary degrees from several U.S. universities. He lives in Bethesda, Maryland, with his wife, Ann, and their two daughters.

Photo and Thomas L. Friedman biographical information provided by www.thomaslfriedman.com and Royce Carlton, Inc.