Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents [B0508]

2020 HCDJ. "An instant American classic and almost certainly the keynote nonfiction book of the American century thus far."-Dwight Garner, The New York Times. The Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Warmth of Other Suns examines the unspoken caste system that has shaped America and shows how our lives today are still defined by a hierarchy of human divisions. National Book Critics Circle Award Finalist. Winner of the Carl Sandburg Literary Award. Kirkus Prize Finalist.

"The hierarchy of caste is not about feelings or morality. It is about power-which groups have it and which do not." Beyond race, class, or other factors, there is a powerful caste system that influences people's lives and behavior and the nation's fate. Linking the caste systems of America, India, and Nazi Germany, Isabel 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. Finally, she points forward to ways America can move beyond the artificial and destructive separations of human divisions, toward hope in our common humanity.

From recent Amazon/GoodReads reviews: "I am late to read this one but so worth it! I wish I could get everyone to read this essential book!"; "While reading, I couldn't help but wonder what Isabel Wilkerson is thinking now. As the U.S. moves further and further away from acknowledging and reckoning with our past, instead passing laws that literally make telling the truth about our history illegal. It felt especially important to be reading the truth of our history in this book today, perhaps even more than it might have in 2020. Highly recommend!"