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Caste

The International Bestseller
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( 157,480 ratings, 21,183 reviews)
Book Hero Magic crafted this summary to help describe this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Summary
Caste by Isabel Wilkerson explores the unspoken social hierarchy that influences lives and behaviour in America. Through historical narratives and personal stories, it examines how these divisions have shaped society from its roots to the present, revealing the systemic forces at play. The book offers a profound insight into the impact and legacy of how power dynamics are constructed and maintained.
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Book Hero Magic created this recommendation. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! IS THIS YOUR NEXT READ?

You might enjoy this insightful book if you are interested in understanding the complex social hierarchies that shape societies, particularly focusing on the persistent issue of racial caste systems. The author expertly draws connections between various historical and contemporary events, offering a compelling framework through which you can view the shadows of caste across different cultures.

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Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Description

From one of America's most celebrated writers comes a moving, eye-opening bestseller about power, history, and what lies hidden beneath the surface of ordinary lives.

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 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 civilisations, including divine will, bloodlines, stigma, and more. Using riveting stories about peopleβ€”including Martin Luther King, Jr., baseball's Satchel Paige, a single father and his toddler son, Wilkerson herself, and many othersβ€”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.

Book Hero Magic summarised reviews for this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! HOW HAS THIS BEEN REVIEWED?

Isabel Wilkerson's Caste has received widespread acclaim for its insightful and transformative examination of social hierarchies in America, linking them to caste systems in India and Nazi Germany. Reviewers have praised Wilkerson's storytelling prowess, compelling research, and the book's ability to alter readers' perspectives on race and inequality. Described as a powerful and essential read, it is celebrated for reframing the discourse around race, offering a clear and urgent call to action against systemic injustice.

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Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9780141995465

Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd

Format: Paperback / softback

Date Published: 14 February 2023

Country: United Kingdom

Imprint: Penguin Books Ltd

Audience: General / adult, Tertiary education, Professional and scholarly

DIMENSIONS

Spine width: 23.0mm

Width: 129.0mm

Height: 198.0mm

Weight: 368g

Pages: 528

About the Author

Isabel Wilkerson, winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the National Humanities Medal, is the author of the critically acclaimed New York Times bestseller The Warmth of Other Suns. Her debut work won the National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction and was included in Time's 10 Best Nonfiction Books of the 2010s and in The New York Times's list of the Best Nonfiction of All Time. She has taught at Princeton, Emory, and Boston Universities and has lectured at more than two hundred other colleges and universities across the United States and in Europe and Asia.

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