Malcolm Gladwell Popular Books

Malcolm Gladwell Biography & Facts

Malcolm Timothy Gladwell (born 3 September 1963) is an English-born Canadian journalist, author, and public speaker. He has been a staff writer for The New Yorker since 1996. He has published seven books. He is also the host of the podcast Revisionist History and co-founder of the podcast company Pushkin Industries. Gladwell's writings often deal with the unexpected implications of research in the social sciences, such as sociology and psychology, and make frequent and extended use of academic work. Gladwell was appointed to the Order of Canada in 2011. Early life and education Gladwell was born in Fareham, Hampshire, England. His mother Joyce (née Nation) Gladwell, is a Jamaican psychotherapist. His father, Graham Gladwell, was a mathematics professor from Kent, England. When he was six his family moved from Southampton to the Mennonite community of Elmira, Ontario, Canada. He has two brothers. Throughout his childhood, Malcolm lived in rural Ontario Mennonite country, where he attended a Mennonite church. Research done by historian Henry Louis Gates Jr. revealed that one of Gladwell's maternal ancestors was a Jamaican free woman of colour (mixed black and white) who was a slaveowner. His great-great-great-grandmother was of Igbo ethnicity from Nigeria, West Africa. In the epilogue of his 2008 book Outliers he describes many lucky circumstances that came to his family over the course of several generations, contributing to his path towards success. Gladwell has said that his mother is his role model as a writer.Gladwell's father noted that Malcolm was an unusually single-minded and ambitious boy. When Malcolm was 11, his father, who was a professor of mathematics and engineering at the University of Waterloo, allowed him to wander around the offices at his university, which stoked the boy's interest in reading and libraries. In the spring of 1982, Gladwell interned with the National Journalism Center in Washington, D.C. He graduated with a bachelor's degree in history from Trinity College of the University of Toronto, in 1984. Career Gladwell's grades were not high enough for graduate school, so he decided to pursue advertising as a career. After being rejected by every advertising agency he applied to, he accepted a journalism position at conservative magazine The American Spectator and moved to Indiana. He subsequently wrote for Insight on the News, a conservative magazine owned by Sun Myung Moon's Unification Church. In 1987, Gladwell began covering business and science for The Washington Post, where he worked until 1996. In a personal elucidation of the 10,000-hour rule he popularized in Outliers, Gladwell notes, "I was a basket case at the beginning, and I felt like an expert at the end. It took 10 years—exactly that long."When Gladwell started at The New Yorker in 1996, he wanted to "mine current academic research for insights, theories, direction, or inspiration". His first assignment was to write a piece about fashion. Instead of writing about high-class fashion, Gladwell opted to write a piece about a man who manufactured T-shirts, saying: "[I]t was much more interesting to write a piece about someone who made a T-shirt for $8 than it was to write about a dress that costs $100,000. I mean, you or I could make a dress for $100,000, but to make a T-shirt for $8—that's much tougher."Gladwell gained popularity with two New Yorker articles, both written in 1996: "The Tipping Point" and "The Coolhunt". These two pieces would become the basis for Gladwell's first book, The Tipping Point, for which he received a $1 million advance. He continues to write for The New Yorker. Gladwell also served as a contributing editor for Grantland, a sports journalism website founded by former ESPN columnist Bill Simmons. In a July 2002 article in The New Yorker, Gladwell introduced the concept of the "talent myth" that companies and organizations, in his view, incorrectly follow. This work examines different managerial and administrative techniques that companies, both winners and losers, have used. He states that the misconception seems to be that management and executives are all too ready to classify employees without ample performance records and thus make hasty decisions. Many companies believe in disproportionately rewarding "stars" over other employees with bonuses and promotions. However, with the quick rise of inexperienced workers with little in-depth performance review, promotions are often incorrectly made, putting employees into positions they should not have and keeping other, more experienced employees from rising. He also points out that under this system, narcissistic personality types are more likely to climb the ladder, since they are more likely to take more credit for achievements and take less blame for failure. He states both that narcissists make the worst managers and that the system of rewarding "stars" eventually worsens a company's position. Gladwell states that the most successful long-term companies are those who reward experience above all else and require greater time for promotions. Works With the release of The Bomber Mafia: A Dream, a Temptation, and the Longest Night of the Second World War in April 2021, Gladwell has had seven books published. When asked for the process behind his writing, he said: "I have two parallel things I'm interested in. One is, I'm interested in collecting interesting stories, and the other is I'm interested in collecting interesting research. What I'm looking for is cases where they overlap". The Tipping Point The initial inspiration for his first book, The Tipping Point, which was published in 2000, came from the sudden drop of crime in New York City. He wanted the book to have a broader appeal than just crime, however, and sought to explain similar phenomena through the lens of epidemiology. While Gladwell was a reporter for The Washington Post, he covered the AIDS epidemic. He began to take note of "how strange epidemics were", saying epidemiologists have a "strikingly different way of looking at the world". The term "tipping point" comes from the moment in an epidemic when the virus reaches critical mass and begins to spread at a much higher rate.Gladwell's theories of crime were heavily influenced by the "broken windows theory" of policing, and Gladwell is credited for packaging and popularizing the theory in a way that was implementable in New York City. Gladwell's theoretical implementation bears a striking resemblance to the "stop-and-frisk" policies of the NYPD. However, in the decade and a half since its publication, The Tipping Point and Gladwell have both come under fire for the tenuous link between "broken windows" and New York City's drop in violent crime. During a 2013 interview with BBC journalist Jon Ronson for The Culture Show, Gladwell admitted that he was "too in love with the broken-windows notion". He went on to say that he was "so enamored by the metaphorical simplicity of that idea that I.... Discover the Malcolm Gladwell popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Malcolm Gladwell books.

Best Seller Malcolm Gladwell Books of 2024

  • Outliers synopsis, comments

    Outliers

    Malcolm Gladwell

    Malcolm Gladwell, bestselling author of Blink and The Bomber Mafia and host of the podcast Revisionist History, explores what sets high achievers apartfrom Bill...

  • Velocity synopsis, comments

    Velocity

    Ajaz Ahmed & Stefan Olander

    How can you win when the only certainty is change? Highly accessible, lively and inspiring, Velocity draws upon the authors’ unique perspectives and experiences to present seven ti...

  • High Conflict synopsis, comments

    High Conflict

    Amanda Ripley

    When we are baffled by the insanity of the “other side”in our politics, at work, or at homeit’s because we aren’t seeing how the conflict itself has taken over.That’s what “high co...

  • The Time Paradox synopsis, comments

    The Time Paradox

    Philip Zimbardo & John Boyd

    Your every significant choice every important decision you make is determined by a force operating deep inside your mind: your perspective on time your internal, personal time z...

  • Face to Face synopsis, comments

    Face to Face

    Brian Grazer

    Featured on CBS This Morning, Squawk Box, MSNBC, CNN, Bloomberg, Forbes, Fast Company, The New York Times, and more.“Reading Face to Face is like being a fly on the wall, watching ...

  • Attention Span synopsis, comments

    Attention Span

    Gloria Mark

    AS SEEN ON ARMCHAIR EXPERT WITH DAX SHEPARD, WALL STREET JOURNAL, NEW YORK TIMES AND MORE A COSMOPOLITAN BEST NEW NONFICTION BOOK TO ADD TO YOUR TBR IN 2023A "NEXT BIG IDEA CL...

  • Belonging synopsis, comments

    Belonging

    Owen Eastwood

    THE NO.1 INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER THAT INSPIRED THE EUROPEAN RYDER CUP VICTORY'Gareth Southgate's secret weapon' Guardian'A copy of Eastwood's new book, Belonging, was given to ev...

  • The Wisest One in the Room synopsis, comments

    The Wisest One in the Room

    Thomas Gilovich

    Renowned psychologists describe the five most useful insights from social psychology that will help make you “wise”: wise about why we behave the way we do, and wise about how to u...

  • Fluke synopsis, comments

    Fluke

    Brian Klaas

    In the perspectivealtering tradition of Malcolm Gladwell’s The Tipping Point and Nassim Nicholas Taleb’s The Black Swan comes a provocative challenge to how we think our world work...

  • Talking to Strangers synopsis, comments

    Talking to Strangers

    Malcolm Gladwell

    Malcolm Gladwell, host of the podcast Revisionist History and author of the #1 New York Times bestseller Outliers, offers a powerful examination of our interactions with strangers&...

  • The Age of Magical Overthinking synopsis, comments

    The Age of Magical Overthinking

    Amanda Montell

    From the bestselling author of Cultish and host of the podcast Sounds Like a Cult, a delicious blend of cultural criticism and personal narrative that explores our cognitive biases...

  • The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell synopsis, comments

    The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell

    Leslie Watts & Shelley Sperry

    Is it possible to write a nonfiction book that changes minds or even changes the world? The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell sold 1.7 million copies in its first year of release, ...

  • The Naked Leader Experience synopsis, comments

    The Naked Leader Experience

    David Taylor

    Imagine if you simply could not fail. Where would you go? What would you do? Who would you be?There are no answers, only choices. Right here and now, as you hold this book in your ...

  • The Pressure Principle synopsis, comments

    The Pressure Principle

    Dr Dave Alred MBE

    ''If you are struggling with exams, vivers, job interviews, work presentations, with performing in a team or individual sport or find it difficult to interact in social situations...

  • You Are Awesome synopsis, comments

    You Are Awesome

    Neil Pasricha

    INSTANT #1 BESTSELLERFrom Neil PasrichaNew York Times millioncopy bestselling author of The Book of Awesome series and The Happiness Equation, thought leader for the next generatio...

  • Happy Ever After synopsis, comments

    Happy Ever After

    Paul Dolan

    'A passionate, provocative book. It isn't just a selfhelp book. It is a manifesto for a better society' Sunday Times 'One of the most rigorous articulations of the new mood of acc...

  • Override synopsis, comments

    Override

    Connell Cowan PhD & David Kipper, MD

    Based on today’s breakthrough science into neurotransmitters, Override reveals a clear path to overcoming bad habits that sabotage our success in career, love, and healthy living. ...

  • The Imagination Muscle synopsis, comments

    The Imagination Muscle

    Albert Read

    'Beautiful, moving, profoundly imaginative in itself this book is as entertaining as it is relevant and practical' ALAIN DE BOTTON'Anyone who has an imagination that is, everyone...

  • On Suicide synopsis, comments

    On Suicide

    Émile Durkheim, Richard Sennett & Robin Buss

    Emile Durkheim's On Suicide (1897) was a groundbreaking book in the field of sociology. Traditionally, suicide was thought to be a matter of purely individual despair but Durkheim ...

  • Sentient synopsis, comments

    Sentient

    Jackie Higgins

    Perfect for fans of The Soul of an Octopus and The Genius of Birds, this “masterpiece of science and nature writing” (The Washington Post) explores how we process the world around ...

  • Make No Small Plans synopsis, comments

    Make No Small Plans

    Elliott Bisnow, Brett Leve, Jeff Rosenthal & Jeremy Schwartz

    From the founders of the acclaimed Summit event series and community comes the story of their unconventional journey to business success and the hard lessons they learned along the...

  • The Values Compass synopsis, comments

    The Values Compass

    Mandeep Rai

    Winner of a 2020 Nautilus Book Award An International Bestseller“The Values Compass takes us into the hearts, minds, and traditions of the cultures and people of the world. It dem...

  • Instinct synopsis, comments

    Instinct

    Rebecca Heiss

    A revolutionary approach to unlockingyour innate ability to achieve success in business and in life.Why do we constantly feel overwhelmed by stress, dissatisfied in our careers and...

  • The Comfort Crisis synopsis, comments

    The Comfort Crisis

    Michael Easter

    Discover the evolutionary mind and body benefits of living at the edges of your comfort zone and reconnecting with the wildfrom the New York Times bestselling author of Scarcity Br...

  • 50 Success Classics synopsis, comments

    50 Success Classics

    Tom Butler-Bowdon

    Discover the alltime classic books that have helped millions of people achieve success in their work and personal lives.

  • A Brief Guide to Smart Thinking synopsis, comments

    A Brief Guide to Smart Thinking

    James M. Russell

    Each book is summarised to convey a brief idea of what each one has to offer the interested reader, while a 'Speed Read' for each book delivers a quick sense of what each book is l...

  • Black Privilege synopsis, comments

    Black Privilege

    Charlamagne Tha God

    An instant New York Times bestseller! Charlamagne Tha Godthe selfproclaimed “Prince of Pissing People Off,” cohost of Power 105.1’s The Breakfast Club, and “the most important voic...

  • Le point de bascule de Malcolm Gladwell synopsis, comments

    Le point de bascule de Malcolm Gladwell

    Anastasia Samygin-Cherkaoui

    Une analyse concise pour comprendre rapidement tout l’intérêt du livre Le point de bascule de Malcolm GladwellLe point de bascule, ouvrage rédigé par le journaliste britannique Mal...

  • The New Science of Strong Materials synopsis, comments

    The New Science of Strong Materials

    J E Gordon

    Why isn't wood weaker that it is? Why isn't steel stronger? Why does glass sometimes shatter and sometimes bend like spring? Why do ships break in half? What is a liquid and is tre...

  • Resilience synopsis, comments

    Resilience

    Andrew Zolli

    Discover a powerful new lens for viewing the world with fascinating implications for our companies, economies, societies, and planet as a whole.What causes one system to break down...

  • Applied Empathy synopsis, comments

    Applied Empathy

    Michael Ventura

    Michael Ventura, entrepreneur and CEO of awardwinning strategy and design firm Sub Rosa, shares “how to unlock our ability to design solutions, spark innovation, and solve tough ch...

  • Be Fearless synopsis, comments

    Be Fearless

    Jean Case

    Be Fearless is researchedbased call to action for those seeking to live extraordinary lives and bring about transformational change.LOS ANGELES TIMES BESTSELLER NATIONAL BESTSELLE...

  • Microtrends Squared synopsis, comments

    Microtrends Squared

    Mark Penn

    Ten years after his New York Times bestselling book Microtrends, Mark Penn identifies the next wave of trends reshaping the future of business, politics, and culture.Mark Penn has ...

  • Shook One synopsis, comments

    Shook One

    Charlamagne Tha God

    Charlamagne Tha God, New York Times bestselling author of Black Privilege and always provocative cohost of Power 105.1’s The Breakfast Club, reveals his blueprint for breaking free...

  • The Matter of Black Lives synopsis, comments

    The Matter of Black Lives

    Jelani Cobb & David Remnick

    A collection of The New Yorker‘s groundbreaking writing on race in Americaincluding work by James Baldwin, Toni Morrison, TaNehisi Coates, Hilton Als, Zadie Smith, and morewit...

  • Before You Know It synopsis, comments

    Before You Know It

    John Bargh

    Dr. John Bargh, the world’s leading expert on the unconscious mind, presents a “brilliant and convincing book” (Malcolm Gladwell) cited as an outstanding read of 2017 by Business I...

  • David and Goliath by Malcolm Gladwell - Summary synopsis, comments

    David and Goliath by Malcolm Gladwell - Summary

    Omar Elbaga

    "Your weakness could actually be your strength." "A must read for anyone trying to achieve success in life." This book is a summary of the original book "David and Goliath: Underdo...