#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • OPRAH'S BOOK CLUB PICK • LONGLISTED FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD
• An instant American classic and almost certainly the keynote nonfiction book of the American
century thus far.-Dwight Garner The New York Times The Pulitzer Prize-winning bestselling
author of The Warmth of Other Suns examines the unspoken caste system that has shaped America
and shows how our lives today are still defined by a hierarchy of human divisions. As we go
about our daily lives caste is the wordless usher in a darkened theater flashlight cast down
in the aisles guiding us to our assigned seats for a performance. The hierarchy of caste is
not about feelings or morality. It is about power-which groups have it and which do not. In
this brilliant book Isabel Wilkerson gives us a masterful portrait of an unseen phenomenon in
America as she explores through an immersive deeply researched narrative and stories about
real people how America today and throughout its history has been shaped by a hidden caste
system a rigid hierarchy of human rankings. Beyond race class or other factors there is a
powerful caste system that influences people's lives and behavior and the nation's fate.
Linking the caste systems of America India and Nazi Germany Wilkerson explores eight pillars
that underlie caste systems across civilizations including divine will bloodlines stigma
and more. Using riveting stories about people-including Martin Luther King Jr. baseball's
Satchel Paige a single father and his toddler son Wilkerson herself and many others-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 America can move beyond the artificial and destructive
separations of human divisions toward hope in our common humanity. Beautifully written
original and revealing Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents is an eye-opening story of
people and history and a reexamination of what lies under the surface of ordinary lives and of
American life today.
