Thomas L. Friedman is the author of The Lexus and the Olive Tree, and his experiences give support to his analysis of globalization. A lifelong journalist, Friedman began his career covering the Lebanese civil war in 1979 before working for the New York Times. At the New York Times, he covered the 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon before returning to America to cover the George HW Bush and Bill Clinton White Houses. From 1994 until the present, he has been an op-ed columnist for the Times, where he travels the world as a foreign affairs columnist, writing about globalization, economics, and foreign policy. He has published several other books, notably From Beirut to Jerusalem, which covers his time reporting on the middle east, and The World Is Flat, which also covers the impact of globalization.

Friedman centers himself in The Lexus and the Olive Tree, drawing on his insights gained from travelling around the world and engaging in conversations with global, political, and economic elites. Much of his arguments are supported by these anecdotes and conversations. At the same time, Friedman attempts to provide a ground-level perspective by recounting conversations with service-sector employees in the countries he visits, such as taxi drivers.