THE TIME NONFICTION BOOK OF THE YEAR
''Required reading for all of humanity'' - Oprah Winfrey
''It could not have come at a more urgent time'' - Fatima Bhutto, Guardian
''An instant American classic'' - Dwight Garner, The New York Times
''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.