Summary Of Outliers By Malcolm Gladwell

Most Americans know the story of our 35th president, John Fitzgerald Kennedy, along with his accomplishments. However, not many people know just how he became so successful, and the hidden opportunities and advantages he was given. In the book Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell, the author shows how certain people become successful, whether it is from their culture, their upbringing, or even their hidden opportunities. Gladwell brings up the story of a man named Joe Flom who was given unusual advantages in his lifetime, and ended up becoming successful, even though his ancestors were not. This story of Joe was strikingly similar to the success story of John Kennedy. The lesson that the reader learns from Flom is that success does not just come from

These advantages and opportunities are parallel to Flom’s due to the fact that Kennedy was born into a family of politics, was raised by one of the most powerful families in America, had the family background of hard working Irish immigrants, and came into politics as a Democrat right as the “liberal movement” was occurring. Without these opportunities, it is safe to say that Jack may not have obtained the position of president, and we would have had a different 35th president. Throughout this paper, Kennedy’s path to success and his nomination of president of the U.S. will be

Young people questioned everything, from the traditional gender roles in the family to the methods of education.” This ‘switch’ form conservative views, as mentioned in Vulcan’s article, led to what was known as the ‘Liberal Movement’, which in later years spawned the ‘Hippie Movement’. These people were rebelling against their parent’s views and were tired of Republican rule led by Eisenhower. John Kennedy, a young Liberal running for election, was the obvious candidate for this group of people. John’s viewpoints on how society should be ran appealed greatly to this group of people. Some of these viewpoints included: The belief that America is a nation of immigrants and that immigrants are an important part of society, the need to end world conflicts and pull troops out of their deployed countries, and most importantly, he aimed at stopping segregation with the help of Martin Luther King Jr. This last ideal not only helped him get the vote of the Baby Boomers, but the vote of African American citizens as well. It was reported that Kennedy received 70% of the African American vote, while his opponent, Richard Nixon, only received 30% (OnTheIssues 1). John could not have run for president at a better time. His need to progress civil rights matched the viewpoints of the African American community, and his liberal views