A review by itheory
Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson

emotional hopeful informative

5.0

A spectacular, deeply researched, devastating treatise on the power, suppression, and deep structural and personal damage of caste on society. I appreciate its lucidity, the clear elucidation of caste (as opposed to race or class) as the structural roots of inequality and oppression in American society. And the threads pulled back to at least 1619, the throughline of the eight pillars of caste: they opened my eyes and broke my heart. I’m grateful to Isabel Wilkerson for making and publishing this work, it must have been a wrenching process. But this deeply felt, lyrical work of history, philosophy, and storytelling will, I think, stand the test of time. It will certainly stay with me.