Deep South: A Social Anthropological Study of Caste and Class

Deep South is a groundbreaking work of anthropology that provides an unprecedented examination of how race shapes nearly every aspect of twentieth-century life in the United States.

Living undercover in Depression-era Mississippi, the authors deliver a nuanced and startling account of how caste and class inform Black and White worldviews.

This reissue of the 1965 abridged edition includes a new foreword from Pulitzer Prize winner Isabel Wilkerson, who acknowledges the book’s profound importance to her own work.

With its detailed analysis of how race is constructed, solidified, and reinforced, Deep South remains as relevant today as when it was first published in 1941.

This essential work on the concept of caste will inform and inspire scholars, students, and anyone interested in understanding the complexities of American inequality.