The American Way of Killing

Malcolm Gladwell returns with a brilliant new work: an incisive investigation into gun violence, America's deadliest and most polarizing crisis. Why, when it comes to lethal violence, is America so different from the rest of the globe? The United States is wealthier, better educated, more technologically sophisticated, more religious than almost any of its peers in the developed world-all of which would suggest that it should also have the lowest levels of violence. Yet the opposite is true. In this bold new book, Malcolm Gladwell outlines the paradox, then walks the reader through a series of stories drawn from every corner of American life and culture from emergency rooms to Hollywood westerns to big-city police departments to Supreme Court oral arguments-looking for answers.

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.