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

Length: 8 hrs and 42 mins

Publisher's summary

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)

very good

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

Interesting Reading

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

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.

relevant information but dated

Any additional comments?

The title delivers on the topic, except that the information is dated because this book was written before the global economic recession of 2008. The book's discussion and review of corporate activity in India and China is more glowing than I think is warranted. However the book does address problems for both the West and Eastern nations in the rise of these two Asian giants. It serves as a decent introduction to changes that have happened, are happening, and may happen for the world, and particularly the US, in light of Asia's economic development, Being unfamiliar with the topic except occasional newspaper articles, I found enough in this book to satisfy my initial interest. It paints a broad background sketch of some rapid changes that have occurred within the last couple decades.

The saccharin, complacent voice of Laural Merlington would suit a romance novel more than a book analyzing economic, social, and political trends. She reads clearly, but her tone and inflection do not support serious non-fiction. As I listened, I kept thinking a unicorn was going to arrive to save the day. I had the impression throughout the book that she was just reading rather than processing (understanding) the words.

Very good summarization of the two countries

What made the experience of listening to The Elephant and the Dragon the most enjoyable?

Detail, Descriptive, Accurate

What other book might you compare The Elephant and the Dragon to and why?

The World is Flat

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

The Elephant eats the Dragon :) Looks like its poised to do that.

Any additional comments?

This is a few years old now (2014). It would be a good time to write the next one in 2016.

Automaton narrator

This book was a fantastic read (hear?). I didn't know anything about Indian or Chinese history and it gave me the basic tools to understand why both of these countries are drawing such attention, by drawing comparisons and contrasts between the two countries over the last 50 years. I feel "smarter" and more aware of current politics outside of the American political bubble we live in.

The only drawback (and this was my first audiobook so maybe this is just the way things are) was that the narrator sounded like an automaton, like a computer recorded voice that says "for english, press one."

Eye opening

This book should be in every class room in America
It is a history lession and current event lession.
Very informative and a wake up call.

informative and interesting

I enjoyed the pace of the book. It's a nice mix of the historical background, and then commentary.