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  • Caste

  • The Origins of Our Discontents
  • By: Isabel Wilkerson
  • Narrated by: Robin Miles
  • Length: 14 hrs and 26 mins
  • 4.8 out of 5 stars (472 ratings)
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Caste cover art

Caste

By: Isabel Wilkerson
Narrated by: Robin Miles
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Summary

Brought to you by Penguin.

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 civilisations 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.

©2020 Isabel Wilkerson (P)2020 Penguin Audio

What listeners say about Caste

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Brilliant book that should be required reading

Being of Indian origin I am only too aware of Caste and the pernicious nature thereof. It was revelatory to have caste applied to the American condition. I was engrossed from beginning to end. Be prepared to be put through a gamut of emotions, ranging from aching sadness to visceral rage at the treatment of our African American brothers and sisters at the hands of the dominant caste (white people). Such treatment spans slavery, Jim Crow through to the present day. I sincerely hope that this book is made required reading in schools, colleges and Universities in the US. I cannot recommend this book highly enough. A masterpiece. Thank you Isabel Wilkerson for your tour de force. In Solidarity.

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A must read.

A must read for all who want to give humanity its best chance.

Get over yourself and get into the book.

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Fantastic

A smart fresh perspective on an ancient problem. Research impeccable. Narration was excellent. Can’t recommend highly enough.

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Biased and woke.

I bought this in the hope of learning about the caste system in the sub-continent (not unreasonable given the book's title). After a few hours of trying I grew tired of the constant drone about the evils perpetrated on blacks in America. It may well have contained some of the knowledge and information I'd hoped for but thanks to the self-righteous garbage that came before that possibility, I'll never know.

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Essential to one's education

The grim skeleton of the structural racism that haunts and frames modern American life is laid bare here. This book presents clearly the effect of the human impulse to create hierarchy and then to raise up that creation to quasi-religious status so that it may not be questioned or properly seen, understood and demolished. That American society should be held in a self-reinforcing vicious cycle that blinkers 'good people' to the cause of the malaise in their country, and simultaneously allows a moneyed elite to profiteer from the discord sown and cultivated between groups even as ALL are being sold an unattainable, unsustainable 'American Dream' is saddening beyond words. Wanting to persist with a child's faith in the fairytale of one's nation's history is a sign of immaturity: it's time to stop patronising so many people by not challenging this fantasy. It is my sincere hope that my fellow human beings on the far side of the Atlantic can rise to the hyperbole of the marketing of the USA as the 'land of the free'. Reading this book may just help some citizens to discover the 'matrix' and begin to find a way out of it.

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a must read,

a must read, then share. vital in these unsettling times of caste and class stratification

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Insightful, thought provoking.

I had read the previous book by the same author and was drawn to the subject matter. I found this book to be captivating the whole way through, it was seamless in how it flowed from topic to topic.
I found myself learning a lot through it and it really caused me to question a lot of things, which is exactly what you want in a book. Hard to capture in words the essence but I will say an excellent read.
If you want to be educated on this subject matter, be entertained and informed, highly recommend this book.

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astonishing

it left me with an understanding of American and European history that is kept hidden from us.
this is an important book that should be in every school library.

sadly, the author was mislead by her canine "behaviourist", who dragged out the same nonsense about Alpha and pack leaders that was disproved decades ago (Mech).
Domestic dogs do not have a pack structure, they aren't pack animals, they have no Alpha, and you don't have to eat before them.

Domestication completely changed the dog, which has little in common with its distant relative the grey wolf.
Authors to look up inc Jean Donaldson, Bekoff, Miklosi, Pat McConnell, Yin, Case, Kaminski, Brophey, Zadie Todd.

that tv trainer who whispers, has no formal education or qualifications in dog behaviour.

Otherwise, fantastic book for anyone wondering why African Americans 'haven't gotten over slavery' or thinks white men are oppressed.

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    5 out of 5 stars

Exceptional !!!

One of the best book I've ever heard/read.
Excellently written and researched.
Brilliantly Narrated

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Heavy, but well argued

Isabell Wilkerson agrued well for the existence of the caste system in all societies, though particulaly the United States. Well worth the deep dive.

Caution: very important but hard to listen to themes from current and historical socities.

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