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

Written by Malcolm Gladwell

Narrated by Malcolm Gladwell

Audie Award Winner, Nonfiction, 2014

Explore the power of the underdog in Malcolm Gladwell's dazzling examination of success, motivation, and the role of adversity in shaping our lives, from the bestselling author of The Bomber Mafia.

Three thousand years ago on a battlefield in ancient Palestine, a shepherd boy felled a mighty warrior with nothing more than a stone and a sling, and ever since then the names of David and Goliath have stood for battles between underdogs and giants. David's victory was improbable and miraculous. He shouldn't have won.

Or should he have?

In David and Goliath, Malcolm Gladwellchallenges how we think about obstacles and disadvantages, offering a new interpretation of what it means to be discriminated against, or cope with a disability, or lose a parent, or attend a mediocre school, or suffer from any number of other apparent setbacks.

Gladwell begins with the real story of what happened between the giant and the shepherd boy those many years ago. From there, David and Goliath examines Northern Ireland's Troubles, the minds of cancer researchers and civil rights leaders, murder and the high costs of revenge, and the dynamics of successful and unsuccessful classrooms—all to demonstrate how much of what is beautiful and important in the world arises from what looks like suffering and adversity.

In the tradition of Gladwell's previous bestsellers—The Tipping Point, Blink, Outliers and What the Dog Saw—David and Goliath draws upon history, psychology, and powerful storytelling to reshape the way we think of the world around us.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Hachette Audio
• Release date: Oct 1, 2013
• ISBN: 9781478978251

Malcolm Gladwell

Malcolm Gladwell is the author of seven New York Times bestsellers: The Tipping Point, Blink, Outliers, What the Dog Saw, David and Goliath, Talking to Strangers, and The Bomber Mafia. He is also the cofounder of Pushkin Industries, an audio-​content company that produces Revisionist History, among other podcasts and audiobooks. He was born in England and raised in Canada, and lives outside New York with his family and a cat named Biggie Smalls. His latest book is Revenge of the Tipping Point: Overstories, Superspreaders and the Rise of Social Engineering.

Reviews for David and Goliath

[castlelass · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Malcolm Gladwell provides insight into why underdogs are often successful against a more powerful opponent. As is typical in his books, he takes the contrarian position, arguing that these so-called underdogs are skilled in areas under-appreciated by the general population. He cites examples and research from the fields of psychology, sociology, science, and business in support of this assertions.

As always, I enjoy reading Gladwell for the entertainment value. He does a great job of weaving together various stories, setting one aside to focus on another, related, story on the same general topic, and coming back to the initial story later to wrap up the thought. His method is effective in keeping the reader’s attention. His approach is to highlight the counterintuitive, leading the reader to several “a-ha” moments.

Whether his sweeping statements will stand up to scientific scrutiny is another matter entirely. The main issue I have with his approach is that the research he cites is not done in support of his theories. It is relevant to the topic he is examining but does not actually prove “cause and effect.” For example, Gladwell cites examples and anecdotes of dyslexics who are successful. This does not mean dyslexia causes success. Science is used to supplement his narrative, not drive it. I enjoyed this book for its thought-provoking content, but the reader should bear in mind that his observations have not been proven using the scientific method.

[hardlyhardy · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

When a boy named David slew a giant named Goliath, it was not the oddity we might think it was. So says Malcolm Gladwell in his book “David and Goliath” (2013). It happens all the time. The underdog upsets the champion. The outnumbered defeat superior forces. Both Vietnam and Afghanistan send the United States fleeing, just as the Colonies once did to the British.

With greater size, strength or experience often comes overconfidence and erroneous assumptions. David doesn't stand a chance, the thinking goes. Yet apparent weakness in the conventional sense can force someone to discover a hidden strength, just as David thought to use his sling, a wicked weapon at a distance, against a giant with a sword, a wicked weapon up close.

Gladwell gives several examples. A basketball coach with no experience and even less knowledge of the game led his group of untalented girls to the championship game. He did this by emphasizing defense and full-court pressure. Teams have just so many seconds to get the ball inbounds and so many seconds to get it across the half-court line. If they can't do that, your team gets the ball. These girls prevented this from happening again and again and again, rarely giving more talented teams opportunities to even take a shot. Their complete lack of ability, says Gladwell, "made their winning strategy possible." More talented girls would never have worked that hard.

Many top business leaders have dyslexia, Gladwell discovered. Even now, at the top of their professions, they still have difficulty reading. How did they do it? By listening carefully and remembering what they hear and what, with great effort, they are able to read. "Dyslexia — in the best of cases — forces you to develop skills that might otherwise have lain dormant," he writes.

There's more than one way to win a battle or a war. Swords — or bombs and heavy artillery — are one way. But slings — and guerrilla warfare and simply refusing to surrender — are another way. Passive resistance made the civil rights movement successful. Forgiveness can be more powerful than revenge. Attending a state college can be better for your career than attending Harvard or Stanford. Gladwell covers a lot of ground in a 300-age book, all of it fascinating stuff.

[reader1009-863136 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

nonfiction (on audio; read by the author). You don't have to agree 100% with everything Gladwell proposes, but he does have an awful lot of good points that are worth thinking about (in a different way). [librarian note: this book came out 2 months ago and its being on the bestseller list has, not surprisingly, revived an interest in his other books so that currently they ALL have waitlists. Hooray for narrative nonfic.]

[emscape · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Gladwell gives us a very different perspective on the story of David vs Goliath that a lot of us grew up with in Sunday School. The concept of the giant vs the shepherd boy is usually told to reinforce a point that even the underdog can triumph with the power of God; however, Gladwell explains that it's more about the use of unexpected methods and exploiting cracks in the system that allows these 'underdogs' to victory. Other themes center around finding balance in your aims as well as the relative merits of being a big fish in a small pond vs a medium-sized fish in a big pond.
I read this with my book club and though we weren't raving about it, it was an interesting challenge to some of our long-held worldviews.

[bederson-208717 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

The book is fine - entertaining and engaging, and I think the message is good - but not as challenging as he made it out to. Summary:

* Balance is better than too much or too little of anything
* It is sometimes better to be excellent among a smaller peer group than to be at the bottom of a larger or more competitive group

This time, he has more data to support his anecdotes which is good - but he still occasionally says thinks a bit strongly...

[kamgeb · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

It was an ok book about how sometimes a disadvantage is actually an advantage. I think there wasn't enough to write a whole book and this would have been better as a shorter article. Also I felt at times he was rather one sided. The whole Ireland issue is so complex and from reading the book it would seem there was a "good" side and a "bad" side. Also it sometimes seemed like the author tried to hard to make everything fit his viewpoint. Not bad but I wouldn't reread it or recommend it to a friend.

[marthajeanne · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This started out well, but the further examples did not really support his thesis, and seemed to be there just to pad the length.

[danielstj · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

An excellent book detailing a variety of different topics under one central guise. There are tales, provided with a careful lens that examines the incident as a singular entity and then as a whole, that dive into the nature of many philosophical and moral questions that beg to be asked and answered. I feel I have learned a lot in reading this and am working through a more refined way of examining things. Definitely worth reading and full of food for thought.

4.5 stars!

[tatoosh-3 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The thesis that ties together the hodge-podge of topics address in David and Goliath is that limitations and weaknesses inherent in the strong/big/rich limit their ability to impose their will on the small/weak/powerless while the very limitations inherent in being small/weak/powerless can lead to the development of attitudes and skills that are empowering. Gladwell begins with the biblical tale of David and Goliath, but his tour of topics takes in economic deprivation and the limits of wealth, class size in public school, the benefits of being a “big fish in a small pond,” cognitive impairments, challenging established professional models, ethnic minority status, cultural and religious persecution, and tragic personal loss. Each topic is illustrated with graphic anecdotes that form the basis for Gladwell’s sweeping generalizations.

This and other Gladwell books have been challenged for their lack of a balanced consideration of the important social issues he addresses. For example, he provides compelling anecdotes about the successes of individuals with dyslexia and children raised in poverty, he scarcely acknowledges the far greater number with similar challenges that fail to overcome these deficits inherent. He does note that dyslexic individuals who have become multi-millionaires universally state that they would never “wish” dyslexia on their children, but that is only a modest tip of the hat towards balance.

Gladwell defends his work as intended to provide the basis for a conversation rather than a definitive statement of a general truth. However, he fails to make that point in this and his other writings.

Most of the vignettes presented here are interesting, and some are emotionally moving. However, the potpourri of topics insures that most readers will find some less interesting or well treated than others. Having spent a professional lifetime as a university professor, for example, I found his treatment of success in a major university to be rather shallow, and his failure to explain how the successful dyslexics managed to matriculate and earn a university degree to be dissatisfying. Gladwell’s challenge of established beliefs is well-worth considering, but readers need to maintain a healthy degree of skepticism.

[asxz-2 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Rubbish. Simply rubbish. There are some good anecdotes there but they in no way support the hypothesis he proposes at the start which is confused and meaningless anyway. He tells a good story, but I'm more convinced than ever that Malcolm Gladwell is an idiot.

[eraderneely · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Typical of Gladwell, he refers back to the earlier stories/people in the book too often. It's like he's REALLY trying to drive home his central premise when he needs to just do one sum-up at the end.

Some stories were good, some didn't make sense in his central premise, and one really bothered me.
He makes the point that prospective scientists/engineers drop out (into another major) if they're in the bottom 1/3 of their class, whether they are at a top school like MIT (thus with top grades coming in) or at a state school, because of feeling like a failure relative to your peers. His point is that if you want to get a STEM degree, you should go to a school where you will be the best or (even if you're really smart) you might get a degree you don't want. But he just acts like the difficulty of a chemistry class at a state school is the same as MIT. It's just NOT. Going to a more elite school means more difficult classes, and those bottom students aren't failing because they feel inferior they are failing because they aren't up to the harder coursework. An MIT-educated scientist/engineer is just not the same as a University of Maryland-educated one, and we shouldn't pretend that they are. If you really want to be a scientist engineer and worry that you can't hack it at a really good school, go somewhere slightly easier and be a scientist/engineer - but don't blame it on the relative inferiority complex from the tough school, admit you couldn't hack it.

[foof2you · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

What you think is not necessarily true. The bigger, stronger athlete, nation, person, or cause does not always win and that is what this book deals with. Bigger is not always the best.

[tjsjohanna_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Mr. Gladwell turns a lot of assumptions on their head in this latest book about what people believe versus what is really true. He tackles ideas like smaller class size = better education or getting into the best school = higher rate of graduation and better job. He also addresses the idea that the very things that appear to be disadvantages often translate to a higher rate of success. Lots of food for thought.

[margaretfield · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

really great insight into situations in which someone analyzes a seemingly unsurmountable problem and then strategizes by looking at the weaknesses of the problem

[lindaweeks · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I have read all of Malcolm Gladwell's books and have always enjoyed the fact that he makes you look at things in a different way. And he manages to do this without weighing the reader down with language specific to the sciences, and that entertains as well as educates
This book follows that same style but I found the subject matter was heavier this time around, with less that was relevant to the average person. I found it hard to relate what he spoke about to my own life and experiences, and sometimes found myself getting bogged down in the statistical information provided.
The premise was interesting but seemed to be not as multi-dimensional as his previous books and by the end he seemed to be reaching for ways to flesh the topic out and make a full length book of what could have been an article in a magazine.
So not a bad book but not one of Malcolm's best.

[lissabeth21 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I only held off giving this selection a 5 due to the rather abrupt ending. I really enjoy Mr. Gladwell's storytelling style. His tying together of anecdotal experiences and research speak to me very clearly. Another great book that has given me much to think about and will stick with me into the future!

[kk1_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Quite interesting, as the tv show says.
It discusses strategies that underdogs used to win throughout history.
I am not sure all the examples have a straight forward moral basis, and are justified.
And even if they are in these cases, what about the mad scientist doctor who gets it wrong and the dictator who takes over a country. Even so it is a pleasant enough romp through history with plenty to ponder.

[corbettbuchly · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

As always, Gladwell's writing is fascinating and compelling. Not to be cliche, but I always find his books hard to put down. Here, Gladwell shows us how advantages can be disadvantages and visa-versa, and along the way he makes some penetrating and poignant points about society and the nature of power.

[sylliu_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Once again Malcolm Gladwell brings explores unexpected and unconventional truths - this time delving into how people overestimate conventional advantages ("Goliaths") and underestimate disadvantages and underdogs ("Davids"). His examples range from guerrilla and political insurgents to people with dyslexia to the dynamics of class sizes and elite v. non elite colleges.

[lovestobegreen · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

I love Malcolm Gladwell. This is the fourth book of his I've read. I thought the first half of the book was captivating but around the second half I found myself skimming and quickly losing interest. I really wanted to like this book and I did gain some knowledge from the beginning chapters. However, I was disappointed with the direction of the book. Malcolm's other three books are worth a second read but I felt this one wasn't worth a first read.

[addunn3 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The author discusses why we shouldn't be surprised when the underdog wins. Good examples.

[vicki_weisfeld · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

The subtitle of this book, Gladwell’s fifth, is “Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants.” It’s much better that he titled the book as he did, rather than “an exploration of the inverted U-shaped curve.” Gladwell uses his well-developed skill at mixing anecdote and social science research to create a fascinating series of case studies of how, out on the far edges of that curve, powerful institutions and individuals (Goliaths) with seemingly everything going for them can be undermined or bested by seemingly weaker ones (Davids).
Gladwell maintains that people consistently misjudge these kinds of conflicts, because we don’t recognize the weaknesses of Goliaths and underestimate the possibility that Davids can do the unexpected. By the end of the book, his cases demonstrate not just how those with supposed advantages can fail, but also how they can, paradoxically, end up causing these very failures.
As in his previous books—The Tipping Point, Blink, and Outliers—Gladwell marshals fascinating case histories to build and extend his argument bit by bit. Often these examples illustrate the wrong-headedness of conventional wisdom. An early example is the entrenched belief that smaller class sizes improve education, while a growing body of literature suggests that the number of pupils makes no difference in the mid-range (the large number of cases under the U) and that very small classes (one tail of the U) can actually be counter-productive: They are too easily dominated by one or two students and do not present sufficient variety of viewpoints.
The book’s middle section talks about people who have overcome difficulties—dyslexia, racial prejudice—and how the experience of those difficulties actually have facilitated their success. (David Boies, the ultra-successful attorney with dyslexia, had to learn to listen very very carefully and remember very very well because reading was so difficult.)
It’s hard to know what generalized conclusions can be derived from this section. Complicating the situation are an array of individual, parental, social, and other mitigating factors, which Gladwell doesn’t address. So while overcoming severe difficulties is remotely possible (many successful entrepreneurs—perhaps a third—turn out to be dyslexic, for example), his argument seems more interesting than instructive. The exception proving the rule.
Finally, Gladwell discusses the limits of power and how people who have wanted to impose order, such as hardliners among the British in Northern Ireland or supporters of three-strikes-and-you’re-out laws, actually devised policies that produced the opposite effect than that they desired. Gladwell makes a broader point here, well worth considering in light of current events: “The excessive use of force creates legitimacy problems, and force without legitimacy leads to defiance, not submission.”
Gladwell is all about extending his arguments to new territory and, in that vein, reading this section, I couldn’t help thinking about the forthcoming presidential election. Will preemptory allegations about the “rigging” of the vote undermine the election’s legitimacy and, therefore, any new administration’s ability to govern?
Reading Malcolm Gladwell is like brain yoga, an opportunity to stretch your thinking. Whether he’s perfectly “right” in some of his theorizing or whether he too carefully cherrypicks his examples to prove his case, more thinking has to be a good thing in these times.

[marshapetry · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Good book with some interesting new points, but it always amazes me that people think that just because one person gets away with something that "everyone can do it". The person who thinks of a clever way to deceive, or has a new approach to a problem... yah, some of this people win the day, but to think that everyone else can do the same thing and come out with the same result is plain stupidity. It's like saying that, because some basketball player got into the NBA by hard work and thousands of wind sprints, everyone can do the same thing! whoo hoo! why aren't we all NBA stars?!?!? Even Gladwells statistics weren't *that* good; in fact, I may be remembering this wrong but I think at one point he said that - a full 37% (or 40?) of people who used some roundabout way of strategy overcame a superior force - (something like that)... huh?? so essentially 60% of the time it DIDN'T work. Those aren't the best odds.

Anyway, I do recommend this book for some of the insights that Gladwell presents regarding how to approach issues etc... but it just wasn't *that* good of a book.

[soylentgreen23 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

The way Gladwell explains the titular story is fantastic, but some of this book is more of a stretch than Outliers or Blink. The Tipping Point remains, I would say, his best work.

[yvonne.sevignykaiser · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This was book 3 for 2014 in the 52 books 52weeks book group. I read this one on my kindle without whisper sync.

This is the type of book that can make great conversation starters about various issues. I do agree a one size fits all approach leads to many more failures than successes. Wether it is education, medicine, military, or dealing with crime we need to be willing to think outside the box. A set pattern may work for the 10 of 20 in a group, but a more flexible approach will lead to success in the remaining 10 and shouldn't that be the end game.

It was interesting that a staged picture may have been what propelled the civil rights movement out of the shadows and into the light. Although, it only works if you have a Goliath that does exactly as you expect hime to react, so that the David you send out completes the message.

I also enjoyed reading about the Dyslexics that overcame their obstacles, but pointed out that they would not wish dyslexia on their children as a means to success.

[gypsysmom_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Malcolm Gladwell has done it again--taken confusing and difficult material and made it interesting and understandable.

Gladwell takes the well-known Bible story of David and Goliath and explains that, far from David being ill-matched in fighting Goliath, David had the better chance of prevailing. Goliath was weighed down with armour and equipped with weapons that he could use in close combat but not at a distance while David could move quickly and launch his slingshot well out of the reach of Goliath's weapons. This demonstrates that in the struggle between unequal forces how the underdog chooses to fight determines whether they will win. This has been shown in countless wars and also in sporting contests. Sometimes what seems to be an advantage is actually a disadvantage such as small school classes or being accepted to a great university.

The second part of the book is subtitled "The Theory of Desirable Difficulty". Gladwell shows that adversity, such as having dyslexia or losing a parent early in life, can sometimes mould a person into someone with great talents. Many very successful entrepreneurs are classified as having learning disabilities. Gladwell thinks that this problem forced them to learn and think in unusual ways that made them stand out in their fields. Of course, those who don't succeed in overcoming their disability often end up in jail so no-one would want children to have dyslexia.

The third section is called "The Limits of Power". Gladwell shows how power can sometimes make matters worse for instance when the British army was deployed in Northern Ireland. He also contrasts the reactions of two parents who lost daughters to violence. Mike Reynolds reacted to the murder of his daughter by calling for the institution of the Three Strikes Law of California which sent an offender to jail for life the third time they broke the law. This resulted in doubling the number of people in jail in California but likely did nothing to deter crime. On the other hand Wilma Derksen of Winnipeg reacted to the death of her daughter by refusing to be consumed by it and eventually forgiving the perpetrator. I lived in Winnipeg when Candace Derksen went missing and I followed the news stories about the finding of her body and the eventual arrest of the assailant. I remember being impressed with the Derksen's reaction but it was only when I read this book that I learned that they consciously choose not to be consumed because they had been visited by the father of a young girl who was killed in a donut shop a decade earlier. That father was still consumed by her death and it had destroyed his marriage, his health and his life. Which parent made the right choice? I hope I would choose the Derksens' reaction if faced with that horrible consequence.

[martinbodek · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

It is well-known and oft-documented, at this point, that Gladwell is a master cherry-picker, blatantly ignoring the overwhelming majority of the numbers that run counter to the myriad of his arguments, to find the gems that he wishes to discuss. The gripes are boring at this point, because what his critics continue to ignore, and what is elementally boring, but wonderfully factual about the the thinker: he's a master storyteller, genius tale curator, and powerful, insightful analyzer, who's very keyed in to the very game he's playing. This book is also a masterwork of construction. It's built like a Darwinian tree, each story and concept at the bottom deriving perfectly from the branch above. Every chapter is seen through the eyes of specific individuals whose specific stories fall specifically into the categories he brings up for discussion. What comes first? The idea, or the story? It's impossible to tell! But it doesn't matter. Everything he writes is enjoyable, and the opening chapter on the David vs. Goliath story is a veritable "dvar torah" that, if I memorize properly, I might even present one day, in name of my rav, Malcolm Gladwell, SHLIT'A.

[justindtapp · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants . I disagree with Tyler Cowen, I do not think this is one of Gladwell's best books. It is thought-provoking and I enjoyed it, but reviewers (see here and here and here) have poked too many holes in it for me to think it authoritative.

Gladwell's premise is that we misperceive who is at an advantage and disadvantage. David wasn't an "underdog," a stone and sling in the hands of a mobile warrior had a huge advantage from a distance over a slow-moving giant (who was possibly blind) with a spear.

People can create advantage from disadvantage by altering their paradigm. He uses the full-court press in basketball (hailing Pitino, even) as an example. (I love to harp on peoples' paradigms as weaknesses, and this is my favorite example (not mentioned by Gladwell) of an item reinvented and made better by approaching from a different paradigm.)


Gladwell also points to research showing that millionaires--successful people-- have disproportionately faced handicaps, such as dislexia or losing a parent at an early age. He illustrates using a few examples, including the president of Goldman Sachs, who credit dyslexia to their future success. A "desirable difficulty" creates a willpower or stubborness that later serves the otherwise handicapped. However, Gladwell notes that the socially dysfunctional--namely prisoners-- are also disproportionately represented by dyslexics and people who lost parents at an early age. So, what does that tell us? Certain events in childhood can lead to polar outcomes, and it depends on luck, grace, and other circumstances? Did I need to read the book to know that? Do I not already know enough people who ended up in opposite ends of the spectrum to note this phenonmenon?

I appreciate Gladwell for trying to popularize economics, psychology, and statistics into "adventure stories" for the common reader. But repeated accusations that he cherry-picked his studies are problematic. You can't draw broad conclusions from a few anecdotes, especially when contradictory evidence is ignored.

You will learn about all sorts of historical trivia that Gladwell wants to draw your attention to. How Martin Luther King Jr. eagerly hoped children he'd recruited to march in Birmingham would be savagely attacked by dogs, and was quite happy when they were jailed in inhumane conditions. How the Three Strikes law in California was counterproductive in reducing crime, and how that relates to the British's failed occupation of Northern Ireland. How French Huguenots harbored Jews and behaved as true Christians in the midst of WWII and went unpunished, standing up to the Nazi/Vichy Goliath. But as reviewers have noted, other villages that stood up (not mentioned by Gladwell) were destroyed. Perhaps the full-court press isn't as widely shelved as the reader is led to believe.

I give this book 3 stars. There was a lot of historical trivia that I learned and found useful. His main premise, that we shouldn't count people out based on our preconceived biases and paradigms, doesn't strike me as very interesting. If it strikes you as novel, then you are Gladwell's target audience.

[alancaro-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Fascinating. Through his portraits of people who redefined industries and the world, Malcolm Gladwell leaves us with a lot of questions.

[kaulsu · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Fabulous book! How does struggle create success? Gladwell shows how those "at the top" often paid heavy dues to get there, whether it was from surviving childhood traumas, figuring out how to deal with physical abnormalities, or braving horrendous storms of violence.

As always, Gladwell writes with a magical touch, pulling the reader along with vseamless prose.