Follow-up to Wilkerson's incredible The Warmth of Other Suns, which followed the histories of several immigrants from the South to other areas of American in different periods of Jim Crow law. Unfortunately, Caste was not as readable nor as compelling. It lagged in many places and the arguments felt incomplete in others.

This is a very important book and I hope others read it too. I think Oprah recommended it too.

Thanks to the publisher for the ARC.

A very readable impassioned thesis on how America has adopted a Caste system in relation to African Americans and indigenous populations. Well argued, this is an intelligent, thought provoking book with an excellent use of metaphor. I liked the concept of America being an old house and how you have to look beneath the surface to se how it was made.

With thanks to the publisher and netgalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Caste is daunting and emotional, but a necessary examination of the caste system in America. The book focuses simultaneously on the Hindu caste system in India, including that of the Brahmins and the Untouchables, and on the caste system of Nazi Germany, as inspired by America's own caste system in the early 20th century.

I felt violently ill many times while reading the horrors forced upon the Black/African-American citizens at the hands of what Wilkerson names 'the dominant caste', i.e. white folk. Mention of lynch mobs, and how photographs of hanging Black folk were used as postcards to send to family members. There's some gruesome discussion of how Black folks were used as experiments for doctors in gynecology, including cesarean sections. It's a hard book to read, undoubtedly - but a necessary one. This is a book I'd recommend to anyone who seriously believes that things are 'getting better'.

Content warnings: racism, slavery, lynching, violence toward Black people, police brutality, genocide, antisemitism, gun violence, medical trauma, child abuse, rape, torture.

Thank you to Netgalley and Isabel Wilkerson for providing me with an e-copy in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions expressed are my own.

Caste is a widely accessible explanation on what caste is, applying its systematics to India, Germany and the United States, in order to highlight current racial supremacy.
.
In its pages we are reminded of the Nazi fascism, which allowed and encouraged the uprise of hate and torture towards a perceived subordinate caste; alongside the later repentance of a country as it attempts restitution. while Isobel also identifies echoing hateful rhetoric towards races in the U.S though without the same reflect afterthoughts from the state, it makes heavy reading and the cross over really smacks.
.
It was eye opening as although I knew some what of the Indian caste system, this is the first I have read that has framed racism through caste outside of that country, and it made perfect sense, showing what an active threat white politics/power/supremacy continues to be, though you don’t need this book for that, it is pretty clear, this book however will just consolidate the idea for you in a refreshed way.

3 1/2 stars. An interesting, informative, and well-written book that sets itself the challenge of writing about racism in the U.S. without ever using the word 'racism.' Not exactly a "fun" read, but I can see this being recommending in university coursework in years to come, and one I'm glad to have read. Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for the ARC.

An astonishing and so important book, Caste has an intriguing premise that is extremely well argued - that the race system that has developed in the US is a caste system just as entrenched as that in India and that existed in Nazi Germany. Wilkerson is a fantastic writer and whether you agree with her arguments or not, you cannot deny that she knows how to make them. Amazing.

This was a fascinating and wonderfully accessible exploration of caste in the USA. In comparing the stratification of American society to the caste systems of India and Germany under the Nazi regime, Isabel Wilkerson shines a spotlight on the inherent inequity prevalent in the country. Filled with heartbreaking stories where the dominant caste asserted their authority, this book also provides statistical examples that can make for some pretty difficult reading as a white, middle class woman. I found Wilkerson's own experiences, which she inserts into the narrative on occasion to better illustrate her point, particularly powerful and overall, thought this was an excellent and essential piece of reading.
I received a free copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for a fair and honest review.

I read this after completing 'the warmth of other suns' and this is an an excellent follow-up, going deeper and wider into the issues. Both books are very rewarding, very comprehensive but very long.

I found this an enlightening and inspiring book. Although I see myself as racist and will form a judgement on people in first encountering them, with race being one of the factors affecting that judgement, I try to curtail that reaction before it becomes an external action. But I′ve never been able to clearly identify why I have that reaction in the first place.
By positioning racism within the framework of caste, it gave me a completely different viewpoint on how it is a consequence of the society we live in. In some ways I was able to relate it to Class which I have more experience with in the UK, but as the author says ″If you can act your way out of it, then it is class, not caste.″ Using the historical example of Nazi Germany, and the ongoing caste struggles in India, gave a wider perspective on prejudice which at the same time illuminated the specifics of it in Western culture – mainly American but I think it applies more widely.

The idea of caste in America is not a new one, which the author acknowledges with reference to previous writing in this area, but she lays out the evidence in clear and well-argued prose. At times this seems a problem too big to solve, but near the end of the book is a small anecdote, which suggests that forming small connections, can make small steps towards progress.
This is the second book I′ve read by this author. They were both about difficult, complex subjects, but she writes about them in such an engrossing way that they are never tedious.


I had a copy of this book early through Netgalley.

I read The Warmth of Other Suns and really enjoyed it. So, I was really happy when Penguin approved my #netgalley request to read this book. This book could be seen as a sequel, or partner, of the book 'The Warmth of Other Suns'. The Warmth of Other Suns focuses on the effects of racism on the lives of Black Americans. Caste seeks to shed a new light on the causes of racism. This book explores the concept ‘caste' and the ways that the concept could be utilized to understand Race relations in the United States. This book is beautifully written and provides; a brilliant exploration of the history of race relations in the USA, an insightful analysis of the country’s present challenges, and a signpost to a better future. It is a great book for those trying to understand race, and Caste, relations in the USA and the world. A high recommend.

Isabel Wilkerson completely captured my attention throughout this book which addresses how the Caste system in India is similar to the hierarchy in America of different races. ⠀
⠀
There were so many different aspects of this book that made it thought-provoking and I felt like I had learned so much more about the history of slavery and segregation. ⠀
⠀
I also loved how this book dated back to the slavery era and worked all the way up to Donald Trump’s presidency, there wasn’t a chronological order but it didn’t feel stilted or like it jumped back and forth. There was an eloquent and important sequence of this novel that worked so well with what Wilkerson was addressing. ⠀
⠀
This is such a must read for everyone. I now need to read The Warmth Of Other Suns after reading this outstanding non-fiction books!

Parts of Caste are as horrid and difficult to stomach as Roots was to me when it came out and I was 7 (cry) (angry)!  Parts of it are amazing and enlightening.  It is extremely well-written and researched and I recommend it to all especially those studying as a course companion it is so comprehensive. 

Personally if we were re-writing the cannon for literature to be truly inclusive then this is one that should be there with Charles Darwin and The Origin of the Species. 

It is more centred around USA but it makes sense as you read, it shows that there is a unique and long history that has created the discrimination there.  It also touches on other systems for comparison e.g. Nazi Germany.  It explains why/how Trump got in and shows that basic human nature is not always kind and generous otherwise we would never have this situation in this 'modern era' in First world countries. 

I think this one needs to be at the top of everyone's reading list.  BTW It is heavy going so I got the audiobook despite being a reviewer (get the novel for free) and it's one to dip into.

I was given the novel free by netgalley.com for my fair and honest review.

An eye-opening book that everyone should own and should be required reading in schools. I will be buying a copy to annotate to revisit Isabel Wilkerson’s powerful recount of the caste systems in America, India, and Nazi Germany. I will also be encouraging my friends and family to buy a copy! Thank you @netgalley and Penguin Press UK for my gifted copy in return for my honest review.

An excellent read with an interesting look at caste systems across the US, Germany and India. It made the links clear about hierarchy system and how the dominant class view those below them, both consciously and subconsciously.
I felt saddened by the end because the structural racism in society is so pervasive and engrained, it feels like we need another 300 years to progressively move forward and have all of society on the page.

A big thank-you to Isabel Wilkerson, Penguin Press UK, and NetGalley for arc in exchange for my honest review.*
One of the most important books of this year, tackling the issue of race, caste, class and prejudice, giving insight into how a caste society is built, how it functions and how it shapes an individual.

Caste is a book that needs to be read over and over again. It needs to sink deep down and be absorbed. Its lessons learnt and hopefully passed down the generations. One cannot recommend this enough.

I have been asking everyone these days to get a copy. Yes get one - keep it in your library, and ensure you get a few more to read.

Now I know,.. was what I felt afterwards. I hope you do too

I don't think I will ever forget this book. It affected my very core. It was incredibly well written, the language used was exquisitely chosen and each word belonged exactly where it was selectively placed. It was honest and true and reflected so well the injustices that are visible and are allowed, that are sometimes justified and often times allowed slide. It shows what can happen if there is a will, and what should happen if society, honest, caring and just society had a back bone and decided once and for all that equality should exist for all and not just those who can afford it, who studied for it or who were born into it. This really is a great read, so enlightening and so morally correct that it cannot help but insight disgust in and among us all who see the injustices around us for exactly what they are- prejudice, discrimination, segregation, classism, racism and down right hatred.

An extraordinary and exhaustive piece of scholarship that has changed the way I think about race in America. Wilkerson reframes race as a mechanism of a caste system originating from America’s slave past. This system dictates everything from policing (‘a distant echo of an earlier time when anyone in the dominant caste was deputised, obligated even, to apprehend any black person during the era of slavery’) to ideals of beauty (‘they learn to rank themselves by their proximity to the random traits associated with the dominant caste’). This is both revolutionary and intuitive - Wilkerson tells us what we know in our bones to be true as she autopsies this invisible and insidious system. She explains what otherwise is incomprehensible - the willingness of ordinary people to partake in gross crimes against another group of people on the basis of something as flimsy as skin pigmentation or the shape of a nose, in protection of a caste order that punishes these subordinates for any hint of humanity.
⁣
This book examines the damage that caste does both to the subordinate caste as well as their dominant counterparts, and to all the groups stuck in between battling for acceptance into the latter. There are no winners in this system in which we are ‘all cast into assigned roles to meet the needs of the larger production. None of us are ourselves’. ⁣
⁣
Hardest to read are the anecdotes which emphasise the human costs of caste. These illustrate how the caste system breaks down those it deems subordinate - a black child had to sit behind a fence and watch whilst his white teammates splashed around in a pool he was not allowed into, a store manager refused to believe that Wilkerson was the interviewer from the NYT he had been waiting for all afternoon, and a young teenage boy was murdered simply for daring to write a love letter to a girl from a caste above his. Yet these are also the most powerful parts of the book, for it is when we look past caste and recognise humanity that we may begin to⁣ dismantle this system.

This has to be read by everyone, following Oprah’s readings and discussions it was fabulous to delve into really learning this book.
Amazing must read for all ages.