David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants by Malcolm Gladwell

On Monday, April 6th, the Booked for the Day Book Group met to discuss, David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants by Malcolm Gladwell. Here are a few things we discussed during the meeting:

We all agreed that we enjoyed the book and that Gladwell was a great storyteller, surprising us with interesting and thought provoking stories. We discussed most of the topics Gladwell hit upon; teachers of extremely small classes, indifference to bombings, challenges of wealthy parents, battlefields of Northern Ireland, cancer research, dyslexia, the full-press and little fish in a big pond.  As some of the group have children that will be going to college soon this was something that they were glad to hear considering the differences in tuition.

Gladwell devotes a section of the book to discussing the Civil Rights Movement. This is where some of our differences of opinion came to light. Some of our members thought the success of the Civil Rights Movement came through trickery and did not tie in with the theme of the book and the other stories. The moral issue of using children to accomplish their goals was something they could not agree with even if they were well meaning. Other members thought that the end justified the means and that the theme of underdogs changing tactics based on circumstances carried through on this example too.

The group thought that this book was about advantages and disadvantages, and how each can, under certain circumstances, become its opposite. Malcolm Gladwell believes underdogs win more often than we think because their limitations can force them to be creative and they also have the hidden strength of added effort.

These are just a few things mentioned during the discussion. Please feel free to add any of your thoughts in the comment section.