具体描述
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • OPRAH’S BOOK CLUB PICK • 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.
“An instant American classic.”—Dwight Garner, The New York Times
“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.
用户评价
##此caste非彼caste
##[有聲書] 原來燈塔早就是燈塔了，也怪不得民逗一個個都現了黃皮兒納粹的原形。 PS: 不看短評區還真不知道我國人民群眾的美國黑人歷史基礎已經這麼深厚，對這種大雜燴式的綜述已經可以不屑一顧了。
##比较了美国、印度、德国的“Caste”，用“Caste”来分析美国的racism，有很多具体的残酷的例子和作者的亲身经历，"The issue of caste was, to my mind, the basis of every other -ism" (171).这是她这本书有意思的地方之一，“the issue of Caste”指的是那八个pillars，也指人们先是divide然后rank (assign values to different position)的思维方式。如果critical一点来说，我觉得她太乐观了，而对有两个例子（教授和奥巴马）的分析似乎仍然含有作为知识分子的优越感，在想要废除一种ranking的同时又维护另一种ranking
##[有聲書] 原來燈塔早就是燈塔了，也怪不得民逗一個個都現了黃皮兒納粹的原形。 PS: 不看短評區還真不知道我國人民群眾的美國黑人歷史基礎已經這麼深厚，對這種大雜燴式的綜述已經可以不屑一顧了。
##后半本书框架稀碎，分析也偏superficial，可能这种议题还是看正儿八经的社会学家写的会好一些吧
##比较了美国、印度、德国的“Caste”，用“Caste”来分析美国的racism，有很多具体的残酷的例子和作者的亲身经历，"The issue of caste was, to my mind, the basis of every other -ism" (171).这是她这本书有意思的地方之一，“the issue of Caste”指的是那八个pillars，也指人们先是divide然后rank (assign values to different position)的思维方式。如果critical一点来说，我觉得她太乐观了，而对有两个例子（教授和奥巴马）的分析似乎仍然含有作为知识分子的优越感，在想要废除一种ranking的同时又维护另一种ranking
##Africa has no black people.
就，很糟吧。。。就是明明我很支持这个议题的，但是作者对历史学，社会学跟跨文化比较的了解在正经大学都要不及格的。并不是把一堆事请炒在一起，加上一些名人名言的佐料，就能写出有深度的书。所以我是很怕写作技巧特别高的作者。往往写得实在太好，难免怀才自负，不去深入学习想要报道的内容，光靠文笔就满收嘉奖。花了时间去读这四百页的书心累。。。
##前四分之一把概念讲的比较清楚，后半部开始结构垮掉了，例子也多是互相重复，啰哩啰嗦的，完全没有耐心看完。