American Discontents

Judy Lockyer, Professor emerita, Albion College Department of English
Wednesdays, 10:00 am – 12:00 pm. October 8, 15, 22, 29. Kellogg Center 339 (Third Floor) Class size limited to 24.

Isabel Wilkerson’s book Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents (2020) is a particularly significant argument for Americans who want this country to live up to the promises of the democracy we say we want. Wilkerson has combined rigorous research and scholarship in a beautifully written study of how and why the United States has come, yet again, to be dangerously divided. Instead of restating the events that stand as evidence of our divisions, Wilkerson widens the context and compassionately makes plain the habits of thought and being that create such divisions, or “discontents.”

This course will offer a respectful and humane place to think and to talk about the foundational ideas and belief systems that undergird U.S. history and thought. Caste is a big book but contains easily accessible sections and chapters that allow for both close reading and lively discussion. Isabel Wilkerson is a Pulitzer-Prize winning journalist and scholar who gives her readers informed hope.

Caste is available in paperback and can be ordered from Stirling Books. It is important to have the book in some form for discussions.