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A review by realadhdoug
Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson
5.0
I don’t know quite how to articulate how powerful this book is. Reading the description, you wonder how you could possibly write an entire book on it. But the author manages to do so, and there is never a full moment. Essentially, the book is a comparison of India’s traditional caste system with the systems that drove two of the most egregious instances of dehumanization in human history—the Jewish holocaust in Nazi Germany and chattel slavery (as well as Jim Crow) in the United States.
Combining anecdotes from her personal experience researching this book and an immense amount of historical records, the author successfully demonstrates how the concept caste has shaped continued discrimination in the United States all the way to present day. The book is very well-written, and you never feel like you’re simply being inundated with bleak historical facts. You feel like you’re being told a story, in which you can see how things came to be how they are today and how we need to think differently to have a more equitable society. 100% recommend this book. This was my second time reading it, and I guarantee it won’t be the last.
Combining anecdotes from her personal experience researching this book and an immense amount of historical records, the author successfully demonstrates how the concept caste has shaped continued discrimination in the United States all the way to present day. The book is very well-written, and you never feel like you’re simply being inundated with bleak historical facts. You feel like you’re being told a story, in which you can see how things came to be how they are today and how we need to think differently to have a more equitable society. 100% recommend this book. This was my second time reading it, and I guarantee it won’t be the last.