I don't use shouty labels like "must read" but if I did, I'd empty my label maker putting "MUST READ" stickers on this book (and "Stamped from the Beginning" by Ibram X Kendi, but that's a different review). Caste is a personal, general, and scholarly account that sacrifices neither the arresting storytelling nor the extensive research Wilkerson uses as she almost casually shifts your entire perspective on what caste means, how it's applied, and who it affects. Her comparisons of the classic role of caste in India, its brutal application in Nazi Germany, and its unexamined hold on our American infrastructure are horrifically fascinating. Bought to life with personal accounts and historical anecdotes, Caste is an accessible, timely, paradigm-shifting read.