When I picked up Malcom Gladwell’s most recent book, I never expected to be reading about Birmingham.
David and Goliath—underdogs, misfits, and the art of battling giants features Birmingham as one of its primary stories.
I enjoy reading Birmingham history, but I chose David and Goliath only because I liked some of Gladwell’s other books–The tipping point, Outliers, and Blink.
As we’ve come to expect, however, when outsiders talk about the history of Birmingham, they almost always focus on Bull Conner, fire hoses, and dogs.
Gladwell’s description of Birmingham and Bull Conner is no different…
“People told jokes about Birmingham…’A black man in Chicago wakes up one morning and tells his wife that Jesus had come to him in a dream and told him to go to Birmingham. She is horrified: Did Jesus say He’d go with you? The husband replies: ‘He said he would go as far as Memphis.’