Introduction and Chapter 1 Summary

The author Malcolm Gladwell raises this issue of how it only takes a few people to start an epidemic and how the point in which something becomes an epidemic starts is called the "Tipping Point." He gives the example of how Hush Puppies were out of style in the early 1990's but then a few teenagers started wearing them and they became a trendy style which almost everyone was wearing. He also gives examples of the syphilis epidemic in the Baltimore area during 1995-1996 and the three ways that experts on the subject believe it could have started. He concludes the chapter by stating the three rules of the Tipping Point and by asking a question to get us thinking about what is to come in the book.