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lomaxs's review against another edition
informative
reflective
slow-paced
4.75
Really informative book that makes the connection between India’s caste system, Nazi Germany, and the U.S. both during and after slavery. It’s clear that she did a lot of in depth research for this!
I do wish that it was in more of a chronological order and talked more evenly about each country since America makes up most of the content.
I do wish that it was in more of a chronological order and talked more evenly about each country since America makes up most of the content.
teokajlibroj's review against another edition
2.0
It's hard to rate this book because it did make some good points about an important issue, but the writing was poor. The analogies in particular were very clunky and dragged on too long to make a basic point.
The structure was also a mess, there was no clear organisation of the chapters and it constantly jumped forward and backwards in time between slavery, Jim Crow and modern times. The author made a lot of sweeping generalisations and relied heavily on anecdotes, frequently assuming racism was the sole cause of events without considering any other factor. This lead to moments of bizarre juxtaposition such as when a rude woman in a restaurant is compared to slaves having their children taken from them.
Also, the blurb implies this is a comparative study of India, Nazi Germany and the USA, but 90% of it is about America.
The structure was also a mess, there was no clear organisation of the chapters and it constantly jumped forward and backwards in time between slavery, Jim Crow and modern times. The author made a lot of sweeping generalisations and relied heavily on anecdotes, frequently assuming racism was the sole cause of events without considering any other factor. This lead to moments of bizarre juxtaposition such as when a rude woman in a restaurant is compared to slaves having their children taken from them.
Also, the blurb implies this is a comparative study of India, Nazi Germany and the USA, but 90% of it is about America.
aweekinthelife's review
informative
slow-paced
4.0
on the fence about this one: well written but slow on audio. the book weaves between America, Indian caste system, and Germany during the time of Nazis and is compelling but 100% of the way there. i recognize that she’s not the first scholar to draw this connection of race and caste in the context of the US. worth reading and thinking about.