The Dragon and the Elephant: China, India and the New World Order.

• Author: Jimenez, Justin
• Position: Brief article - Book review

THE DRAGON AND THE ELEPHANT: CHINA, INDIA AND THE NEW WORLD ORDER

David Smith

(London: Profile Books, 2007), 266 pages.

How do you fit a dragon and an elephant into 250 pages? Ask David Smith, whose account of the rise of China and India in The Dragon and the Elephant provides a compact overview of these two titans. Smith chronicles the rise of China and India from their dynastic beginnings to their current return to preeminence, offering colorful narratives and nuanced commentary along the way.

The book opens with a glimpse into these two countries' storied pasts, recounting their economic decline to set the stage for their rapid--albeit sometimes turbulent--rise. Smith's punchy anecdotes and interesting observations punctuate statistical and historical analyses of these countries' ascendance, from the concurrent growth of China and Wal-Mart to India's one-billionth baby. The real meat of the book, however, comes in its final two chapters. Here, Smith pits the two giants against one another and subsequently...