What is the author's tone in Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell?

Gladwell strikes a journalistic tone for much of the book. He carefully explains and illustrates the argument he hopes to develop, moving between interesting anecdotes and summary accounts of supporting scientific research. Gladwell also challenges some standard beliefs, and his tone can be incredulous or even sarcastic as he questions conventional thinking. He finishes the main portion of the book with a heartwarming and optimistic story of a young girl from the South Bronx who has been given an opportunity to succeed by attending a rigorous and successful public school. The optimistic tone is tempered with some sadness as he describes how the girl has sacrificed the normal social life a twelve-year-old might expect to enjoy in order to succeed at the intensive school.

Finally, the tone becomes highly personal as Gladwell recounts the history of his own family, beginning with an ancestor who is a black slave in Jamaica. He conveys the various factors that allow his mother to get a good education in a poor country. This personal part of the book is also bittersweet, as he acknowledges that his fair-skinned ancestors enjoyed privileges that darker-skinned ones did not, a result of the racial politics in Jamaica at the time.