David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants

way, shouldn’t they? So why don’t they?
Arreguín-Toft found the same puzzling
pattern. When an underdog fought like
David, he usually won. But most of the
time, underdogs didn’t fight like David.
Of the 202 lopsided conflicts in
Arreguín-Toft’s database, the underdog
chose to go toe-to-toe with Goliath the
conventional way 152 times—and lost
119 times. In 1809, the Peruvians fought
the Spanish straight up and lost; in 1816,
the Georgians fought the Russians
straight up and lost; in 1817, the Pindaris
fought the British straight up and lost; in
the Kandyan rebellion of 1817, the Sri
Lankans fought the British straight up
and lost; in 1823, the Burmese chose to