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I always feel really weird about reviewing nonfiction. Reviewing fiction is cool, because it's just my opinion versus something somebody made up, but reviewing nonfiction...what am I against facts?

So I will keep this quick.

Famous last words.

A lot of reviews say their issue with this book is its repetitiveness, which is kinda fair, but I do think it's necessary - it's an introduction of a new theory and historical/sociological perspective, so repeating the lesson for the sake of ingraining it makes sense to me.

And it is a very compelling argument. I learned a lot about the connection between Nazi Germany and the American South, which (shockingly) in my experience American education was not very eager to teach us about in detail.

And the anecdotal and historical examples of caste (both in the author's theory and in established thought) were well done too.

I did find the discussion of modern day politics very lacking compared to all of the above. Where everything else was fairly groundbreaking and convincing, the way Trump was discussed as the keystone and the source of pure evil and whatnot felt...like a parroting of a million other arguments. And not necessarily good ones.

Which isn't to say I don't hate Trump. I do. But I also think the goofy way that some people responded
(and still for some reason do) to him - for example, people with psych degrees all bonding together to drop a press release diagnosing him with narcissism, for example, in contrast to what counselors are supposed to do and as highlighted in this book - undermines the believability of other arguments.

Don't get mad at me. I'll expand on it if I have to.

Bottom line: Good stuff! Mostly good. Very good. I'm going to stop talking now.

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pre-review

reading my once-annual nonfiction

update: i should do this more often.

review to come / 4 stars

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reading all books by Black authors for Black History Month!

book 1: caste