Malcolm Gladwell will publish his new book, “David and Goliath,” about the “art and science of the underdog.” Gladwell has spent the last three years further investigating, and expanding on, these ideas: moving from basketball to warfare, to crime-fighting, to invention. What should the strategy of the weak be when facing the strong? Does being an underdog—whether as a team a country or an individual—help foster creativity? Why should people at the top of their fields quit their jobs and try to reinvent themselves?
In David and Goliath, Malcolm Gladwell challenges how we think about obstacles and disadvantages-offering a new interpretation of what it means to be discriminated against, or cope with a disability, or lose a parent, or attend a mediocre school, or suffer from any number of other apparent setbacks.
Gladwell begins with the real story of what happened between the giant and the shepherd boy those many years ago. From there, David and Goliath examines Northern Ireland’s “Troubles,” the minds of cancer researchers and civil rights leaders, murder and the high costs of revenge, and the dynamics of successful and unsuccessful classrooms–all to demonstrate how much of what is beautiful and important in the world arises from what looks like suffering and adversity.
In the tradition of Gladwell’s previous bestsellers—The Tipping Point, Blink, Outliers and What the Dog Saw—David And Goliath draws upon history, psychology and powerful story-telling to reshape the way we think of the world around us.
