The Four Little Dragons

[Vogel] explains how government and industry have interacted in South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, and Hong Kong, turning charity case nations into business school case studies. [This book] may be the quickest dose of reality yet for anyone left with a romantic vision of Asia. -- David E. Sanger * New York Times Book Review * Ezra Vogel…provides a fascinating look at the economies of Taiwan, South Korea, Hong Kong, and Singapore… This well-documented analysis is recommended as good background reading for those doing business in East Asia and anyone looking for general information about the explosive economic growth in these countries. -- Greg Jones * China Business Review * Ezra Vogel’s magnificent synopsis explains how it happened that the little East Asian dragons have been so successful. Since he has already written big books about the Japanese accomplishment and the unfolding capitalist miracle in Guangdong, this work is really part of a continuing series of studies that have given us a fairly complete picture of what modern East Asia is all about. Here, his empirical descriptions are brief, but he manages to include broad comparisons that tie his arguments neatly together… This readable, concise book ought to be required reading for all economists, for all theorists of development, for all politicians who want to understand the rudiments of what makes some societies healthy and others not, and for those engaged in business anywhere in the world where East Asian products are important. -- Daniel Chirot * Contemporary Sociology * What a ride it’s been for East Asians, and Vogel captures nicely, in conversational prose, the highlights of the Pacific Rim’s 40-year march to industrial greatness in sectors as different as shipbuilding and textiles. It is an achievement that refutes, once and for all, the notion that industrial revolutions only occur in the West. -- Davis Bushnell * Boston Globe * Ezra Vogel has written an immediately attractive book… [His] account of the spread of industrialization in the four countries is always eminently readable, yet scholarly and authoritative, with just the right amount of sharp detail. -- Rupert Hodder * Times Higher Education Supplement *