David and Goliath

Audie Award Winner Nonfiction 2014Explore the power of the underdog in Malcolm Gladwell's dazzling examination of success motivation and the role of adversity in shaping our lives from the best-selling author of The Bomber Mafia.Three thousand years ago on a battlefield in ancient Palestine a shepherd boy felled a mighty warrior with nothing more than a stone and a sling and ever since then the names of David and Goliath have stood for battles between underdogs and giants. David's victory was improbable and miraculous. He shouldn'thave won.Or should he have?In David and Goliath Malcolm Gladwellchallenges 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 best-sellers - The Tipping Point Blink Outliers and What the Dog Saw - David and Goliath draws upon history psychology and powerful storytelling to reshape the way we think of the world around us.