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The Man in the Crowd 15
Part 1 Toxins in the Permafrost and Heat Rising All Around
Chapter 1 The Afterlife of Pathogens 21
The Vitals of History 37
Chapter 2 An Old House and an Infrared Light 39
Chapter 3 An American Untouchable 48
An Invisible Program 66
Part 2 The Arbitrary Construction of Human Divisions
Chapter 4 A Long-Running Play and the Emergence of Caste in America 71
Chapter 5 "The Container We Have Built for You" 94
Chapter 6 The Measure of Humanity 106
Chapter 7 Through the Fog of Delhi to the Parallels in India and America 124
Chapter 8 The Nazis and the Acceleration of Caste 132
Chapter 9 The Evil of Silence 149
Part 3 The Eight Pillars of Caste
The Foundations of Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents 161
Pillar Number One: Divine Will and the Laws of Nature 163
Pillar Number Two: Heritability 169
Pillar Number Three: Endogamy and the Control of Marriage and Mating 174
Pillar Number Four: Purity versus Pollution 183
Pillar Number Five: Occupational Hierarchy: The Jatis and the Mudsill 208
Pillar Number Six: Dehumanization and Stigma 223
Pillar Number Seven: Terror as Enforcement, Cruelty as a Means of Control 237
Pillar Number Eight: Inherent Superiority versus Inherent Inferiority 248
Part 4 The Tentacles of Caste
Brown Eyes verus Blue Eyes 259
Chapter 10 Central Miscasting 263
Chapter 11 Dominant Group Status Threat and the Precarity of the Highest Rung 274
Chapter 12 A Scapegoat to Bear the Sins of the World 293
Chapter 13 The Insecure Alpha and the Purpose of an Underdog 312
Chapter 14 The Intrusion of Caste in Everyday Life 320
Chapter 15 The Urgent Necessity of a Bottom Rung 342
Chapter 16 Last Place Anxiety: Packed in a Flooding Basement 363
Chapter 17 On the Early Front Lines of Caste 373
Chapter 18 Satchel Paige and the Illogic of Caste 392
Part 5 The Consequences of Caste
Chapter 19 The Euphoria of Hate 401
Chapter 20 The Inevitable Narcissism of Caste 407
Chapter 21 The German Girl with the Dark, Wavy Hair 424
Chapter 22 The Stockholm Syndrome and the Survival of the Subordinate Caste 428
Chapter 23 Shock Troops on the Borders of Hierarchy 444
Chapter 24 Cortisol, Telomeres, and the Lethality of Caste 459
Part 6 Backlash
Chapter 25 A Change in the Script 473
Chapter 26 Turning Point and the Resurgence of Caste 490
Chapter 27 The Symbols of Caste 507
Chapter 28 Democracy on the Ballot 533
Chapter 29 The Price We Pay for a Caste System 538
Part 7 Awakening
Chapter 30 Shedding the Sacred Thread 549
The Radicalization of the Dominant Caste 555
Chapter 31 The Heart Is the Last Frontier 560
Epilogue: A World Without Caste … 569
Acknowledgments 589
Notes 601
Bibliography 687