The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference

Malcolm Gladwell's highly imaginative pop treatise on the flow of goods and ideas in society reached a tipping point of its own, spending many weeks on the New York Times best-seller list , and then appearing for weeks on both lists following its paperback publication.

Proposing a contagion model, in which things spread through the population like viruses, Gladwell examines a range of phenomena--the sudden and unexpected popularity of Hush Puppies in the fashion world, the decline in the crime rate in New York City, how a book (THE YA-YA SISTERHOOD) became a bestseller out of the blue, a spike in youth suicide rates in Malaysia--teasing out the cause and logic, and showing how they all had a "tipping point" and how they illustrate one of three basic principles. He cites sometimes arcanely sourced studies to support his theories, and along the way has popularized terms such as "word-of-mouth marketing" and "stickiness." THE TIPPING POINT has changed the way we look at and talk about "stuff," and Gladwell's ideas have energized fields such as business, marketing, education, and sociology.

"A lively, timely and engaging study....THE TIPPING POINT is worth reading just for what it tells us about how we try to make sense out of the world." - Kepler (New York Times Book Review, 3/5/00)

"Gladwell's wide-ranging research has led him to believe that all trends...follow certain laws, which he delineates with skill and a palpable sense of excitement." - Lawrence W. Lichty (Ruminator Review, Summer 2000)

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