Why read Breakneck?

Book cover of Breakneck

Book description

For close to a decade, technology analyst Dan Wang-"a gifted observer of contemporary China" (Ross Douthat)-has been living through the country's astonishing, messy progress. China's towering bridges, gleaming railways, and sprawling factories have improved economic outcomes in record time. But rapid change has also sent ripples of pain throughout the…

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Why read it?

1 author picked Breakneck as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Ken Wilcox

Author

I love Breakneck because it looks at China’s madcap dash to build out its infrastructure and compares it to the U.S., where our bridges collapse and our railroad is a joke.

China has devoted huge amounts of time and materials to almost operatic infrastructure projects (bullet trains, superhighways, enormous bridges)—all at “breakneck” speed. And with such speed, apparently, has come lapses in safety. But I believe that the U.S. suffers from the reverse problem: we build too slowly.

I found Wang’s distinction that China is run by engineers and the U.S. by lawyers to be extremely insightful. I also relish…

From Ken's list on Ken Wilcox's favorite books that describe China today.