Description

Twenty-five years after the publication of his groundbreaking first book, Malcolm Gladwell returns with a brand new volume that reframes the lessons of The Tipping Point in a startling and revealing light

What does the heartbreaking fate of the cheetah tell us about the way we raise our children? Why do elite universities care so much about sports? What is the Magic Third, and what does it mean for racial harmony? In this provocative new work, Malcolm Gladwell returns to the subject of social epidemics and tipping points, this time with the aim of explaining the dark side of contagious phenomena.

Through a series of riveting stories, Gladwell traces the rise of a new and troubling form of social engineering. He takes us to the streets of Los Angeles to meet the world’s most successful bank robbers, rediscovers a forgotten television show from the 1970s that changed the world, visits the site of a historic experiment on a tiny cul-de-sac in northern California, and offers an alternate history of two of the biggest epidemics of our day: COVID and the opioid crisis.

Revenge of the Tipping Point is Gladwell’s most personal book yet. With his characteristic mix of storytelling and social science, he offers a guide to making sense of the contagions of the modern world. It’s time we took tipping points seriously.

Publisher Review

Refining and deepening his and our understanding of the spread of customs, mores, and practices, Gladwell emphasizes those overstories, illustrating them with twisting and turning tales of, for example, how the word holocaust came into general usage (surprisingly, via TV), how the idea of gay marriage gained acceptability, and how widespread social engineering has quietly become one of the central activities of the American establishment. Fans of the original will learn much from Gladwell’s thoughtful, carefully written reconsideration * Kirkus, starred review * Positioning his theory of the superspreader within COVID-19 and the opioid epidemic, Gladwell deftly demonstrates how attention to statistics and data points can shape a business, school, or community. An astute and bracing appraisal of how cultures succeed or fail. Best-selling Gladwell’s updating of the concepts in the book that made him famous will garner lively media coverage and reader interest * Booklist * Addictive… fascinating and provocative * Guardian *