Caste The Origins of Our Discontents

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NEW YORK TIMES READERS PICK: 100 BEST BOOKS OF THE 21st CENTURY
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ONE OF BARACK OBAMA’S FAVORITE BOOKS OF THE YEAR
TIME’S #1 NONFICTION BOOK OF THE YEAR

'An instant American classic and almost certainly the keynote nonfiction book of the American century thus far' Dwight Garner, The New York Times

'[Caste] changes the lens through which we see the world' Oprah Winfrey for Time, '25 Books That Capture This American Moment'

'The hierarchy of caste is not about feelings or morality. It is about power - which groups have it and which do not'

Beyond race or class, our lives are defined by a powerful, unspoken system of divisions. In Caste, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Isabel Wilkerson gives an astounding portrait of this hidden phenomenon. Linking America, India and Nazi Germany, Wilkerson reveals how our world has been shaped by caste - and how its rigid, arbitrary hierarchies still divide us today.

With clear-sighted rigour, Wilkerson unearths the eight pillars that connect caste systems across civilizations, and demonstrates how our own era of intensifying conflict and upheaval has arisen as a consequence of caste. Weaving in stories of real people, she shows how its insidious undertow emerges every day; she documents its surprising health costs; and she explores its effects on culture and politics. Finally, Wilkerson points forward to the ways we can - and must - move beyond its artificial divisions, towards our common humanity.

Beautifully written and deeply original, Caste is an eye-opening examination of what lies beneath the surface of ordinary lives. No one can afford to ignore the moral clarity of its insights, or its urgent call for a freer, fairer world.

ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The Washington Post, The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Boston Globe, O: The Oprah Magazine, NPR, Bloomberg, The Christian Science Monitor, New York Post, The New York Public Library, Fortune, Smithsonian Magazine, Marie Claire, Slate, Library Journal, Kirkus Reviews

Winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize
National Book Critics Circle Award Finalist
Winner of the Carl Sandburg Literary Award
Dayton Literary Prize Finalist
PEN/John Kenneth Galbraith Award for Nonfiction Finalist
PEN/Jean Stein Book Award Finalist
Kirkus Prize Finalist