Caste
The International Bestseller
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3.2 • 191 Ratings
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- £5.99
Publisher Description
THE TIME NONFICTION BOOK OF THE YEAR | #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
"Powerful and timely ... I cannot recommend it strongly enough" - Barack Obama
Beyond race or class, our lives are defined by a powerful, unspoken system of divisions. In Caste, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Isabel Wilkerson provides a profound, eye-opening portrait of this hidden phenomenon. This is the story of how our world was shaped by caste, and how its rigid, arbitrary hierarchies still divide us today.
Linking the caste systems of America, India, and Nazi Germany, Wilkerson explores eight pillars that underlie caste systems across civilizations, including divine will, bloodlines, stigma, and more. Using riveting stories about people--including Martin Luther King, Jr., baseball's Satchel Paige, a single father and his toddler son, Wilkerson herself, and many others--she shows the ways that the insidious undertow of caste is experienced every day. She documents how the Nazis studied the racial systems in America to plan their out-cast of the Jews; she discusses why the cruel logic of caste requires that there be a bottom rung for those in the middle to measure themselves against; she writes about the surprising health costs of caste, in depression and life expectancy, and the effects of this hierarchy on our culture and politics. Finally, she points forward to ways we can move beyond the artificial and destructive separations of human divisions, toward hope in our common humanity.
'Required reading for all of humanity' Oprah Winfrey
"If you haven't read it yet, you absolutely must." - Edward Enninful, Vogue
'An instant American classic' Dwight Garner, The New York Times
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
Oprah calls her new book club pick “a game-changing, revolutionary, profound look at how we got where we are in terms of inequality.” And she’s right. Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Isabel Wilkerson—bestselling author of The Warmth of Other Suns—takes us on an eye-opening journey as she excavates and reframes history. Her astounding deep dive into racial hierarchy in the United States pulls no punches. Drawing parallels to India and Nazi Germany and blending history, sociology, and powerful stories of lived experience, Wilkerson argues that the U.S. has always operated through a race-based system of caste. Her historical reframing gives us a new language for talking about racism and helps explain what it means to be casteist, or “invested in keeping the hierarchy as it is or content to do nothing to change it.” Wilkerson backs up her assertions with meticulous research, illustrating how caste permeates every aspect of American life: from politics to health outcomes to interpersonal relationships to the ways we learn to be ourselves. Caste effortlessly makes history personal, because it is. If you only read one book about race in the U.S. in your lifetime, let this be it.
Customer Reviews
Valuable insight
Insightful. Well-researched and intelligently written. This book provides a sharp focused lens on history which is valuable for study if people are willing to listen. It provides a platform for facing the problems of a caste-system, educating and moving into a new unprejudiced future. It should be essential reading in schools and educational establishments around the world.
Disappointing and Hurtful
A nuanced subject.. one that requires thorough understanding. Omitting how the word caste was introduced and why. No background history. Very disappointing and hurtful.
Brilliant
Highly Recommend