The Elephant and the Dragon

The Rise of India and China, and What It Means for All of Us

By: Robyn Meredith

Narrated by: Laural Merlington

In the streets of India, camels pull carts loaded with construction materials, and monkeys race across roads, dodging cars. In China, men in Mao jackets pedal bicycles along newly built highways, past skyscrapers sprouting like bamboo. Yet exotic India is as near as the voice answering an 800 number for one dollar an hour. Communist China is as close as the nearest Wal-Mart, its shelves full of goods made in Chinese factories.

Not since the United States rose to prominence a century ago have we seen such tectonic shifts in global power; but India and China are vastly different nations, with opposing economic and political strategies - strategies we must understand in order to survive in the new global economy.

The Elephant and the Dragon explains how these two Asian nations, each with more than a billion people, have spurred a new "gold rush", and what this will mean for the rest of the world.

©2007 Robyn Meredith (P)2007 Tantor Media Inc.

Critic reviews

"Robyn Meredith's systematic analysis fills the gap in a spirited, readable manner." (Mike Wallace, 60 Minutes)
"An exciting and journalistic account of one of the great economic stories of our time: the transformation of China and India." (Joseph Stiglitz, Nobel Prize winning economist)

Interesting Reading

Excellent overview of recent economic developments in India and China. Good general interest information or starting point for more detailed study.

very good

Best audiobook I've listened to so far. It was interesting and very informative.

Required reading - sort of

I listened to this book because it is on the U.S. Navy recommended reading list. This book is a good introduction to the issues of globalization and while scholars of India and China would probably find it way too basic, for the rest of us, this book can be the beginning of opening our eyes to the issues we read about in the papers.

Excellent discussion of why jobs are being offshored and a real wake up call to anyone who has high aspirations for their children. Great insight as to why the Chinese have the manufacturing jobs and the Indians have the technology jobs.

The author uses the word "tectonic" more than I think is needed, but otherwise the prose is clear. I found the audio quality to be excellent and the narration very crisp. Yes, the reader's voice is a bit mechanical, but I did not have any problem with that.

Fantastic

Does an excellent job of explaining how both India and China came to hold near-superpower status. This book goes beyond The World is Flat as it addresses the link between the US and Chinese economies. I have recommeneded it to many friends and have listened to it many times.

Readable, even enjoyable, macroeconomics

This is an excellent synopsis of the emerging Asian economies of China and India presaging the implications of their economic growth and "coming of age" as global powers.

The author does a wonderful job of combining economic statistics with the stories of leaders and individuals that illustrate the meaning of the raw numbers. Economics may be the "dismal science," but Robyn Meredith makes it quite readable, even enjoyable.

Some of author's own political opinions color the "hard facts" contained in this book - which would be fine if clearly written as such. On the other hand, it would be almost impossible to write anything but the most bland statistical "yada, yada, yada" on this theme without some of the author's point of view creeping into the pages. Fortunately, these "transgressions" are few and detract little from the overall reading (or listening) experience.

On a technical note, the audio recording's volume levels seemed to be on the low side making listening on my "smartphone" difficult in the car, and other noisy environments. On my laptop, I could compensate for this, but some smartphone or portable MP3 player users may have similar difficulties. The recording's volume level can be corrected using volume compression, or normalization, during playback on many devices.