My copy of Caste, Isabel Wilkerson’s new non-fiction tome on how racial discrimination and segregation shaped America, is due to be delivered tomorrow. I haven’t been this excited to read a book in a very long time.
Well, excited might not be the right word. Her last book, The Warmth of Other Suns—which tells the story of the mid-20th Century migration of over 6 million Black Americans from the South to other parts of the U.S. now referred to as the Great Migration—was beautifully written, extraordinarily well researched, and of course absolutely soul-wrenching.
The Warmth of Other Suns is a must read for any lover of dense non-fiction, as well as anyone interested in the intersection of urban planning and racial justice. I imagine the continuation of the story in Caste will compliment it well.
Related: Dwight Garner’s review in the New York Times this morning, which calls Caste “certainly the keynote nonfiction book of the American century thus far”, and “one of the most powerful nonfiction books I’d ever encountered”. (via Kottke)