Caste

**#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER NEW YORK TIMES READERS PICK: 100 BEST BOOKS OF THE 21st CENTURY OPRAH’S BOOK CLUB PICK ONE OF BARACK OBAMA’S FAVORITE BOOKS OF THE YEAR TIME’S #1 NONFICTION BOOK OF THE YEAR 'An instant American classic and almost certainly the keynote nonfiction book of the American century thus far'** Dwight Garner, The New York Times '[Caste] changes the lens through which we see the world' Oprah Winfrey for *Time, '*25 Books That Capture This American Moment' '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 civilizations, 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.