The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration (Unabridged)
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4.7 • 162 Ratings
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- $34.99
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- $34.99
Publisher Description
In this epic, beautifully written masterwork, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Isabel Wilkerson chronicles one of the great untold stories of American history: the decades-long migration of Black citizens who fled the South for northern and western cities, in search of a better life.
NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD WINNER
LYNTON HISTORY PRIZE WINNER
HEARTLAND AWARD WINNER
DAYTON LITERARY PEACE PRIZE FINALIST
NAMED ONE OF THE TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY
The New York Times • USA Today • O: The Oprah Magazine • Amazon • Publishers Weekly • Salon • Newsday • The Daily Beast
NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY
The New Yorker • The Washington Post • The Economist • Boston Globe • San Francisco Chronicle • Chicago Tribune • Entertainment Weekly • Philadelphia Inquirer • The Guardian • The Seattle Times • St. Louis Post-Dispatch • The Christian Science Monitor
From 1915 to 1970, this exodus of almost six million people changed the face of America. Wilkerson compares this epic migration to the migrations of other peoples in history. She interviewed more than a thousand people, and gained access to new data and official records, to write this definitive and vividly dramatic account of how these American journeys unfolded, altering our cities, our country, and ourselves.
With stunning historical detail, Wilkerson tells this story through the lives of three unique individuals: Ida Mae Gladney, who in 1937 left sharecropping and prejudice in Mississippi for Chicago, where she achieved quiet blue-collar success and, in old age, voted for Barack Obama when he ran for an Illinois Senate seat; sharp and quick-tempered George Starling, who in 1945 fled Florida for Harlem, where he endangered his job fighting for civil rights, saw his family fall, and finally found peace in God; and Robert Foster, who left Louisiana in 1953 to pursue a medical career, the personal physician to Ray Charles as part of a glitteringly successful medical career, which allowed him to purchase a grand home where he often threw exuberant parties.
Wilkerson brilliantly captures their first treacherous and exhausting cross-country trips by car and train and their new lives in colonies that grew into ghettos, as well as how they changed these cities with southern food, faith, and culture and improved them with discipline, drive, and hard work. Both a riveting microcosm and a major assessment, The Warmth of Other Suns is a bold, remarkable, and riveting work, a superb account of an “unrecognized immigration” within our own land. Through the breadth of its narrative, the beauty of the writing, the depth of its research, and the fullness of the people and lives portrayed herein, this book is destined to become a classic.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
Chronicling one of the most underreported historical events of the 20th century, The Warmth of Other Suns is as sweeping and dramatic as the most cherished American novels—except every word of it is true. From the 1910s through the ’60s, more than six million African Americans left the South, seeking hope and opportunity in cities like Chicago, New York, and Los Angeles. Journalist Isabel Wilkerson lays out the story of the Great Migration with rich descriptions and a feeling of up-close intimacy. She focuses on the stories of three ordinary Southerners—a sharecropper’s wife, a farmworker, and a doctor—and interweaves their personal narratives with intriguing small details and big-picture observations about how this shift shaped our nation's cultural, social, and political landscape. (Both rock ‘n’ roll and Detroit’s auto boom were direct outgrowths!) Narrator Robin Miles brings a sense of personality to each of Wilkerson’s subjects, as well as a quiet dignity that matches the spirit of Wilkerson’s prose. This is the first in-depth look at this awe-inspiring change, and it’s both historically fascinating and deeply moving.
Customer Reviews
Highly Recommend!
This book is a must-read for all Americans! Dr. Wilkerson does a fantastic job of making non-fiction readable. She connects what may be unfamiliar to us, and makes it familiar and real to the reader because she informs us about the migration through the narratives of three different families. Wonderfully researched.
Amazing-- read it whether you're black or white!
Having lived in many of the places that were described (Florida, NYC, LA, and Chicago), I was completely entranced and educated by this extraordinary book. I am Caucasian, but this book was as educational about my own race as it was about the African-American race. An incredible work-- highly recommended.
Warmth of other Suns
The Great Migration is called a leaderless revolution, in fact most black southern leaders were against leaving the south, and encouraged people to stay and endure, and change the conditions of the south.
Wilkerson takes on the entire stretch of migration years from 1915-1970 as she shares the stories of African Americans and their experiences through the Great Migration, interviewing over 1200 people, retracing their miles travels between the south to the north or west. She specifically highlights the stories of Ida Mae who was born in Mississippi and makes her way north to Chicago; George who is a fruit picker in Florida and makes his way to New York City; and Pershing who later went by Bob, was born in Louisiana, educated in Georgia and Tennessee, and finally made his way to California.
Their stories are interwoven with the discussion of famous people like DuBois and DuSable and historical events like the case of Plessy V. Ferguson, and the Chicago riots of 1919; and also the unethical but legal practices like debt peonage. Stories of our history is always a hard read, but Wilkerson is a flawless storyteller. She weaves histories and tales and the stories of Ida Mae, George, and Bob effortlessly. What readers learn is the escape from the southern persecution was unfortunately not an escape from racism. Each person details the racism they endured in the north, some of which put them in the same position they were in down south.
Ida Mae’s story covers the experience of a sharecropper to domestic, factory worker, to finally a nurses aid which she felt finally gave her some dignity. George’s story of a failed education and marriage ruse led him to a job as a train porter which he felt was beneath him. His intelligence led him into activism, trying to help workers and teachers form unions, encouraging white train patrons to complain about rude and racist conductors. Most his activism led him to run for his life back to New York. Bob, who was professionally educated and a practicing doctor married his way into black high society. Determined to make a name for himself in California, he works menial medical jobs until he was able to build a clientele. He was known for his sharp suits and dedicated bedside manner, and acquired some famous black musicians as his patients. Bob loved the high life but still even once he acquired wealth was often reminded he could still be impacted by racism. What amazes me about this book is the amount of research Wilkerson completed to present such a complete story. These stories are one generation removed from me and it feels like we are headed right back into the volatile times of Jim Crow. The generation following the migrant generation had an interesting relationship with the south. George’s children returned to the south feeling the north misled them to a life drugs and troubles. Bob’s children had no connection to the south and dismissed it all together. Ida Mae kept her southern traditions and instilled them in her children creating a southern—like family network in Chicago, and she and her children visited the south with ease. It was Ida Mae that endured the most, but remained her authentic self. She, unlike the two men featured, was not bitter, or opposing to the south, when she return to Mississippi she even jumped at the chance to pick cotton again. She always appreciated the south, lived the most full life. The two men left this earth disappointed in way life played out for them. Ida Mae outlived them both, and her story reiterates the idea that women are the strength behind the movement.