Page 1 of 1
Please "Check In" here to the discussion of "Caste" - by Isabel Wilkerson
Posted: Mon Dec 21, 2020 3:13 pm
by Chris OConnor
Everybody benefits by knowing who else is planning to read and discuss the book so please make a brief post here checking in and letting us know of your intention to join the discussion of "Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents" - by Isabel Wilkerson.
Re: Please "Check In" here to the discussion of "Caste" - by Isabel Wilkerson
Posted: Mon Dec 21, 2020 8:21 pm
by LanDroid
Isabel Wilkerson is the real deal. If you haven't heard of her (I had not before), you might check out this interview with her by historian John Meacham. If you don't want to spend 45 minutes, at least fast forward to 2:30 where John gives Isabel a very brief but glowing introduction, which says a lot coming from him!
https://www.c-span.org/video/?474913-1/ ... sses-caste
And here's a rave review of Caste by the NY Times which DWill linked to previously.
Isabel Wilkerson’s ‘Caste’ Is an ‘Instant American Classic’ About Our Abiding Sin
A critic shouldn’t often deal in superlatives. He or she is here to explicate, to expand context and to make fine distinctions. But sometimes a reviewer will shout as if into a mountaintop megaphone. I recently came upon William Kennedy’s review of “One Hundred Years of Solitude,” which he called “the first piece of literature since the Book of Genesis that should be required reading for the entire human race.” Kennedy wasn’t far off. I had these thoughts while reading Isabel Wilkerson’s new book, “Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents.” It’s an extraordinary document, one that strikes me as an instant American classic and almost certainly the keynote nonfiction book of the American century thus far.
Dwight Garner
7/31/2020
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/31/book ... tents.html
Who else is in?
Re: Please "Check In" here to the discussion of "Caste" - by Isabel Wilkerson
Posted: Tue Dec 22, 2020 4:13 am
by Robert Tulip
I have bought it.
Re: Please "Check In" here to the discussion of "Caste" - by Isabel Wilkerson
Posted: Wed Dec 23, 2020 7:50 am
by LevV
I had to order the book on Amazon since there are no stores with the book in my little area of Nova Scotia, Canada where I recently moved to from Quebec. The book won't get here until on or about Jan 7.
Re: Please "Check In" here to the discussion of "Caste" - by Isabel Wilkerson
Posted: Thu Dec 24, 2020 1:13 pm
by geo
I'm going to tag along as well. Just bought the Kindle version.
As it happens, I recently read The New Jim Crowe by Michelle Alexander, which discusses the war on drugs in America as a thinly veiled attempt to marginalize people of color, much as Jim Crow laws targeted blacks in the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries. As such, the word "caste" appears frequently in Alexander's book. Thanks to LanDroid for volunteering to lead the discussion.
Re: Please "Check In" here to the discussion of "Caste" - by Isabel Wilkerson
Posted: Sun Dec 27, 2020 11:17 pm
by Harry Marks
Happy to join the discussion.
Re: Please "Check In" here to the discussion of "Caste" - by Isabel Wilkerson
Posted: Fri Apr 02, 2021 8:02 am
by stephthebibliophile
Hi, my name is Stephanie and I am interested in joining the discussion on Caste. I am about half way through the book currently and it is making me think deeply about my own as well as my family and other's positions in America and how our own personal caste system in America has affected us as individuals and a group. Thank you for letting me be a part of this. This is my first book discussion on this forum and I am excited to be a part of it.
Re: Please "Check In" here to the discussion of "Caste" - by Isabel Wilkerson
Posted: Fri Apr 02, 2021 10:38 am
by Harry Marks
Welcome Stephanie! I hope the discussion helps you relate to the book, since it is so valuable. It sounds like you are already pretty motivated.