The Dragon and the Elephant

In this summary you will learn

• How to understand India’s and China’s economies
• Why and how these great economies stagnated and then broke through to tremendous new growth
• What today’s Chinese and Indian economic emergence implies for the rest of the world

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Why you should read The Dragon and the Elephant

If you read only one book about the global economic role of India and China, this should be it. David Smith does an excellent job of sketching the economic history of these countries, analyzing the obstacles and impediments they subjected themselves to for most of the 20th century, explaining how they broke the socialist yoke and assessing their prospects for the future. The prose is generally clear and free of jargon. Smith presents ample documentation and footnotes. His treatment of political and economic figures is for the most part well balanced. This is very much a layman’s introduction to the economic emergence of India and China, but getAbstract finds that, unlike many recent books about the two nations, this one is intellectually respectable.

About the Author

David Smith has been the economics editor of the Sunday Times since 1989. He also writes a monthly column for Professional Investor, British Industry and The Manufacturer.