What the Dog Saw: And Other Adventures

Overview

What is the difference between choking and panicking? Why are there dozens of varieties of mustard-but only one variety of ketchup? What do football players teach us about how to hire teachers? What does hair dye tell us about the history of the 20th century?


In the past decade, Malcolm Gladwell has written three books that have radically changed how we understand our world and ourselves: The Tipping Point; Blink; and Outliers. Now, in What the Dog Saw, he brings together, for the first time, the best of his writing from The New Yorker over the same period.



Here is the bittersweet tale of the inventor of the birth control pill, and the dazzling inventions of the pasta sauce pioneer Howard Moscowitz. Gladwell sits with Ron Popeil, the king of the American kitchen, as he sells rotisserie ovens, and divines the secrets of Cesar Millan, the "dog whisperer" who can calm savage animals with the touch of his hand. He explores intelligence tests and ethnic profiling and "hindsight bias" and why it was that everyone in Silicon Valley once tripped over themselves to hire the same college graduate.



"Good writing," Gladwell says in his preface, "does not succeed or fail on the strength of its ability to persuade. It succeeds or fails on the strength of its ability to engage you, to make you think, to give you a glimpse into someone else's head." What the Dog Saw is yet another example of the buoyant spirit and unflagging curiosity that have made Malcolm Gladwell our most brilliant investigator of the hidden extraordinary.

Editorial Reviews

Editorial Reviews for this product are not available at this time.

Author Information

Bio of Malcolm Gladwell

Malcolm Gladwell was a reporter for the Washington Post from 1987 to 1996, working first as a science writer & then as New York City bureau chief. Since 1996, he has been a staff writer for The New Yorker.

Customer Reviews

• Fascinating read!

  Posted January 11, 2010 by Susan, Kitchener, Ontario

  I found the essays in this book to be very interesting and well-written. I couldn't put the book down. I highly recommend it!

• Lots to ponder on

  Posted December 30, 2009 by Fergie, Edmonton

  Lots of variety with lots of interesting takes on common and not so common topics. Will get you thinking.

• If you like to think when you read.

  Posted December 02, 2009 by MRD, Findlay

  If you like to think when you read, then you will love this book! Gladwell's writing style is excellent and he makes some very compelling observations. Recommend this book, once I started reading I had a hard time putting it down.

Additional Info

Imprint

Little Brown & Company

Filesize

429.81 KB

Number of Pages

432

eBook ISBN

9780316086134