The Tipping PointThe Tipping Point

"Why did crime in New York drop so suddenly in the mid-nineties? How does an unknown novelist end up a bestselling author? What makes television shows like Sesame Street so good at teaching kids how to read? Why did Paul Revere succeed with his famous warning? New Yorker writer Malcolm Gladwell looks at why major changes in our society so often happen suddenly and unexpectedly. Ideas, behavior, messages, and products, he argues, often spread like outbreaks of infectious disease. These are social epidemics, and the moment when they take off, when they reach their critical mass, is the Tipping Point. Gladwell introduces us to the particular personality types who are natural polinators of new ideas and trends, the people who create the phenomenon of word of mouth. He analyzes fashion trends, children's television, and the early days of the American Revolution for clues about making ideas infectious, and visits market mavens and great salesmen to show how to start and sustain social epidemics."--Publisher.