Originals: How Non-Conformists Move the World

Grant discusses the ways “originals form alliances to advance their goals” (110) and strategies for overcoming the barriers that cause coalitions to fail. He cites Lucy Stone, the first American woman to keep her own name after marriage, the first woman in Massachusetts to earn a bachelor’s degree, and the first American woman to preach women’s rights on a full-time basis. Stone created the Woman’s Journal, which was crucial to establishing women’s right to vote. She inspired countless women and men to join the suffragette movement both in America and overseas in England. She formed a coalition with Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton and together, they led the movement. Unfortunately, Stone disagreed with Anthony and Stanton over many issues and the group disbanded, creating competition. This created doubt in the movement which delayed success. Grant explores the complexity of coalitions and the relationships that compose them, arguing that “building effective coalitions involves striking a delicate balance between venerable virtues and pragmatic policies” (111). This balance is the “Goldilocks theory of coalition formation” (111); an idea or message that is neither too intense nor tempered, nor too ineffectual.

Grant explains that due to “horizontal hostility” (112), common goals often lead group members to exaggerate and vilify minor differences in similar groups.