Book
The tipping point : how little things can make a big difference / Malcolm Gladwell.
Record details
- ISBN: 0316346624 (pbk.)
- ISBN: 9780316346627 (pbk.)
- ISBN: 9780316316965 (hbk.)
- Physical Description: xii, 301 p. : ill. ; 21 cm.
- Edition: 1st Back Bay pbk. ed.
- Publisher: Boston : Back Bay Books, 2002.
Content descriptions
| General Note: | Originally published: Boston : Little, Brown, c2000. "With a new afterword by the author"--cover |
| Bibliography, etc. Note: | Includes bibliographical references and index. |
Search for related items by subject
| Subject: | Social psychology. Contagion (Social psychology) Causation. Context effects (Psychology) |
Available copies
- 1 of 1 copy available at Selkirk College.
Holds
- 0 current holds with 1 total copy.
| Location | Call Number / Copy Notes | Barcode | Shelving Location | Circulation Modifier | Holdable? | Status | Due Date | Courses |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Castlegar Campus Library | HM 1033 G53 2002 (Text)
Copy: c. 1
|
B001218304 | General | Volume hold | Available | - |
- Booklist Reviews : Booklist Monthly Selections - #2 February 2000
Gladwell, a New Yorker staff writer, offers an incisive and piquant theory of social dynamics that is bound to provoke a paradigm shift in our understanding of mass behavioral change. Defining such dramatic turnarounds as the abrupt drop in crime on New York's subways, or the unexpected popularity of a novel, as epidemics, Gladwell searches for catalysts that precipitate the "tipping point," or critical mass, that generates those events. What he finds, after analyzing a number of fascinating psychological studies, is that tipping points are attributable to minor alterations in the environment, such as the eradication of graffiti, and the actions of a surprisingly small number of people, who fit the profiles of personality types that he terms connectors, mavens, and salesmen. As he applies his strikingly counterintuitive hypotheses to everything from the "stickiness," or popularity, of certain children's television shows to the spread of sexually transmitted diseases, Gladwell reveals that our cherished belief in the autonomy of the self is based in great part on wishful thinking. ((Reviewed February 15, 2000)) Copyright 2000 Booklist Reviews - BookPage Reviews : BookPage Reviews 2000 March
In its own way, Malcolm Gladwell's The Tipping Point exemplifies its subtitle: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference. Gladwell, a staff writer for The New Yorker, tells the stories of seemingly minor incidents that build to matters of great consequence. The tipping point, Gladwell writes, is the moment at which an idea catches on and spreads. He uses the metaphor of epidemics to describe these events, posing the questions, "Why is it that some ideas or behaviors or products start epidemics and others don't? And what can we do to deliberately start and control positive epidemics of our own?"Part of the effectiveness of The Tipping Point lies in the intriguing illustrations Gladwell uses to explain his ideas. Chapters focus on such epidemic catalysts as Paul Revere, cigarettes, the Columbia House gold record advertising campaign, Sesame Street, Rebecca Wells's Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood, subway shooter Bernie Goetz, teen suicide in Micronesia, and Airwalk sneakers. These examples serve to illustrate Gladwell's three components of the Tipping Point, which he calls The Law of the Few, the Stickiness Factor, and the Power of Context.
As diverse as these topics are, Gladwell manages both to maintain the specificity of each example and apply it usefully to his Tipping Point theories. The Bernie Goetz case, for example, illustrates what Gladwell calls the Power of Context, which argues that the psychological or sociological backgrounds of Goetz and the youths on the train have less to do with what happened than their environment. Gladwell argues that the eventually historically significant altercation had "everything to do with the message sent by the graffiti on the walls and the disorder at the turnstiles. The Power of Context says you don't have to solve the big problems to solve crime." Instead, cleaning up the subway system can help.
The Tipping Point alternates between daunting and heartening in what it asks its readers to do and understand; as Gladwell writes, "What must underlie successful epidemics is a bedrock belief that change is possible." That faith is often elusive. After reading Gladwell's book, however, and comprehending exactly what Paul Revere's ride and the Columbia House advertising campaign have in common, the world around us seems eminently ripe for tipping for the better.
Eliza McGraw teaches English at Vanderbilt University. Copyright 2000 BookPage Reviews
- Library Journal Reviews : LJ Reviews 2000 March #1
This genial book by New Yorker contributor Gladwell considers the elements needed to make a particular idea take hold. The "tipping point" (not a new phrase) occurs when something that began small (e.g., a few funky kids in New York's East Village wearing Hush Puppies) turns into something very large indeed (millions of Hush Puppies are sold). It depends on three rules: the Law of the Few, the Stickiness Factor, and the Power of Context. Episodes subjected to this paradigm here include Paul Revere's ride, the creation of the children's TV program Sesame Street, and the influence of subway shooter Bernie Goetz. The book has something of a pieced-together feel (reflecting, perhaps, the author's experience writing shorter pieces) and is definitely not the stuff of deep sociological thought. It is, however, an entertaining read that promises to be well publicized. Recommended for public libraries. Ellen Gilbert, Rutgers Univ. Lib., New Brunswick, NJ Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information. - Library Journal Reviews : LJ Reviews 1999 November #2
This book, which features the Law of the Few and people called Connectors and Mavens, sounds like pop psychology, but it's written by a New Yorker writer, so there's obviously more to it. Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information. - Library Journal Reviews : LJ Reviews 2000 November #2
This book, which features the Law of the Few and people called Connectors and Mavens, sounds like pop psychology, but it's written by a New Yorker writer, so there's obviously more to it. Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information. - Publishers Weekly Reviews : PW Reviews 2000 February #2
The premise of this facile piece of pop sociology has built-in appeal: little changes can have big effects; when small numbers of people start behaving differently, that behavior can ripple outward until a critical mass or "tipping point" is reached, changing the world. Gladwell's thesis that ideas, products, messages and behaviors "spread just like viruses do" remains a metaphor as he follows the growth of "word-of-mouth epidemics" triggered with the help of three pivotal types. These are Connectors, sociable personalities who bring people together; Mavens, who like to pass along knowledge; and Salesmen, adept at persuading the unenlightened. (Paul Revere, for example, was a Maven and a Connector). Gladwell's applications of his "tipping point" concept to current phenomena such as the drop in violent crime in New York, the rebirth of Hush Puppies suede shoes as a suburban mall favorite, teenage suicide patterns and the efficiency of small work units may arouse controversy. For example, many parents may be alarmed at his advice on drugs:since teenagers' experimentation with drugs, including cocaine, seldom leads to hardcore use, he contends, "We have to stop fighting this kind of experimentation. We have to accept it and even embrace it." While it offers a smorgasbord of intriguing snippets summarizing research on topics such as conversational patterns, infants' crib talk, judging other people's character, cheating habits in schoolchildren, memory sharing among families or couples, and the dehumanizing effects of prisons, this volume betrays its roots as a series of articles for the New Yorker, where Gladwell is a staff writer: his trendy material feels bloated and insubstantial in book form. Agent, Tina Bennett of Janklow & Nesbit. Major ad/promo. (Mar.) Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.
