An intellectual adventure story and a road map to change, with a profoundly hopeful message-that one imaginative person applying a well-placed lever can move the world.

Gladwell develops these and other concepts (such as the"stickiness" of ideas or the effect of population size on information dispersal) through simple, clear explanations and entertainingly illustrative anecdotes, such as comparing the pedagogical methods of Sesame Street and Blue's Clues, or explaining why it would be even easier to play Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon with the actor Rod Steiger. Although some readers may find the transitional passages between chapters hold their hands a little too tightly, and Gladwell's closing invocation of the possibilities of social engineering sketchy, even chilling, The Tipping Point is one of the most effective books on science for a general audience in ages. It seems inevitable that"tipping point," like"future shock" or"chaos theory," will soon become one of those ideas that everybody knows--or at least knows by name.