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Audiobook

Caste : the origins of our discontents

Call Number

  • COMPACT DISC 305.5122 W681 (EAS, OSH)

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Edition

Unabridged.

Performers

Read by Robin Miles.

Publication Information

New York : Random House Audio, [2020]

Physical Description

12 audio discs (approximately 14 1/2 hours) : CD audio, digital ; 4 3/4 in.

Summary

The hierarchy of caste is not about feelings or morality. It is about power-- which groups have it and which do not. Wilkerson explores how America today and throughout its history has been shaped by a hidden caste system, a rigid hierarchy of human rankings. 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. She discusses why the cruel logic of caste requires that there be a bottom rung for those in the middle to measure themselves against. Finally, she points forward to ways America can move beyond the artificial and destructive separations of human divisions, toward hope in our common humanity.

Notes

"Oprah's book club, 2020."

Contents

  • The man in the crowd
  • Part one: Toxins in the permafrost and heat rising all around. Chapter one: The afterlife of pathogens
  • The Vitals of History
  • Chapter two: An old house and an infrared light
  • Chapter three: An American untouchable
  • An Invisible Program
  • Part two: The arbitrary construction of human divisions. Chapter four: A long-running play and emergence of caste in America
  • Chapter five: "The Container We Have Built for You"
  • Chapter six: The measure of humanity
  • Chapter seven: Through the fog of Delhi to the parallels in India and America
  • Chapter eight: The Nazis and the acceleration of caste
  • Chapter nine: The Evil of Silence
  • Part three: The eight pillars of caste. The foundations of caste: The Origins of Our Discontents
  • Pillar number one: Divine will and the laws of nature
  • Pillar number two: Heritability
  • Pillar number three: Endogamy and the control of marriage and mating
  • Pillar number four: Purity versus pollution
  • Pillar number five: Occupational hierarchy: The Jatis and the Mudsill
  • Pillar number six: Dehumanization and stigma
  • Pillar number seven: Terror as enforcement, cruelty as a means of control
  • Pillar number eight: Inherent superiority versus inherent inferiority
  • Part four: The tentacles of caste. Brown eyes versus blue eyes
  • Chapter ten: Central miscasting
  • Chapter eleven: Dominant group status threat and the precarity of the highest rung
  • Chapter twelve: A scapegoat to beat the sins of the world
  • Chapter thirteen: The insecure Alpha and the purpose of an underdog
  • Chapter fourteen: The intrusion of caste in everyday life
  • Chapter fifteen: The urgent necessity of a bottom rung
  • Chapter sixteen: Last place anxiety: Packed in a flooding basement
  • Chapter seventeen: On the early front lines of caste
  • Chapter eighteen: Satchel Paige and the illogic of caste
  • Part five: The consequences of caste. Chapter nineteen: The Euphoria of Hate
  • Chapter twenty: The inevitable narcissism of caste
  • Chapter twenty-one: The German girl with the dark, wavy hair
  • Chapter twenty-two: The Stockholm Syndrome and the survival of the subordinate caste
  • Chapter twenty-three: Shock troops on the borders of hierarchy
  • Chapter twenty-four: Cortisol, telomeres and the lethality of caste
  • Part six: Backlash, Chapter twenty-five: A change in the script
  • Chapter twenty-six: Turning point and the resurgence of caste
  • Chapter twenty-seven: The symbols of caste
  • Chapter twenty-eight: Democracy on the ballot
  • Chapter twenty-nine: The price we pay for a caste system
  • Part seven: Awakening. Chapter thirty: Shedding the sacred thread
  • The Radicalization of the Dominant Caste
  • Chapter thirty-one: The heart is the last frontier
  • Epilogue: A world without caste.

Subjects

Added Authors

Robin Miles