The Warmth of Other Suns
The Epic Story of America's Great Migration
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4.3 • 1.4K Ratings
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- $13.99
Publisher Description
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD WINNER • TIME’S TEN BEST NONFICTION BOOKS OF THE DECADE • ONE OF THE NEW YORK TIMES’S FIVE BEST BOOKS OF THE 21ST CENTURY
“A brilliant and stirring epic . . . Ms. Wilkerson does for the Great Migration what John Steinbeck did for the Okies in his fiction masterpiece, The Grapes of Wrath; she humanizes history, giving it emotional and psychological depth.”—John Stauffer, The Wall Street Journal
“What she’s done with these oral histories is stow memory in amber.”—Lynell George, Los Angeles Times
WINNER: The Mark Lynton History Prize • The Anisfield-Wolf Award for Nonfiction • The Chicago Tribune Heartland Prize • The Hurston-Wright Award for Nonfiction • The Hillman Prize for Book Journalism • NAACP Image Award for Best Literary Debut • Stephen Ambrose Oral History Prize
FINALIST: The PEN/John Kenneth Galbraith Award for Nonfiction • Dayton Literary Peace Prize
ONE OF THE TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The New York Times • USA Today • Publishers Weekly • O: The Oprah Magazine • Salon • Newsday • The Daily Beast
ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: 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
In this beautifully written masterwork, Pulitzer Prize–winning author Isabel Wilkerson presents a definitive and dramatic account of one of the great untold stories of American history: the Great Migration of six million Black citizens who fled the South for the North and West in search of a better life, from World War I to 1970.
Wilkerson tells this interwoven story through the lives of three unforgettable protagonists: Ida Mae Gladney, a sharecropper’s wife, who in 1937 fled Mississippi for Chicago; sharp and quick-tempered George Starling, who in 1945 fled Florida for Harlem, and Robert Foster, a surgeon who left Louisiana in 1953 in hopes of making it in California.
Wilkerson brilliantly captures their first treacherous cross-country journeys by car and train and their new lives in colonies in the New World. 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 a modern 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 novel—except every word of it is true. From the 1910s through the ’60s, over 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 farm worker, 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!) This is the first in-depth look at this awe-inspiring change, and it’s historically fascinating and deeply emotional.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Ida Mae Brandon Gladney, a sharecropper's wife, left Mississippi for Milwaukee in 1937, after her cousin was falsely accused of stealing a white man's turkeys and was almost beaten to death. In 1945, George Swanson Starling, a citrus picker, fled Florida for Harlem after learning of the grove owners' plans to give him a "necktie party" (a lynching). Robert Joseph Pershing Foster made his trek from Louisiana to California in 1953, embittered by "the absurdity that he was doing surgery for the United States Army and couldn't operate in his own home town." Anchored to these three stories is Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Wilkerson's magnificent, extensively researched study of the "great migration," the exodus of six million black Southerners out of the terror of Jim Crow to an "uncertain existence" in the North and Midwest. Wilkerson deftly incorporates sociological and historical studies into the novelistic narratives of Gladney, Starling, and Pershing settling in new lands, building anew, and often finding that they have not left racism behind. The drama, poignancy, and romance of a classic immigrant saga pervade this book, hold the reader in its grasp, and resonate long after the reading is done.
Customer Reviews
The Warmth of Other Suns
This book has been very insightful about the migration that I have experienced & seen in my life.
Excellent story of survival
This book is excellently written. It includes the story of four people who moved from the south where living was hard and violence against individuals occurred daily for no reason. To living in the North with its set of life challenges and the consequences of these decisions. It also includes horrifying statistics and and real life stories of those who died at the hand of very evil people. It was an enjoyable read yet very sad. I would recommend it to any who really wants to understand the history of the African American great migration.
Wow!! What a Great Read!!
I never thought I could be so consumed by a piece of non-fiction. I could not put it down!! The 3 characters are amazing and I admire them so!! Should be taught in school. Thank you for teaching me with such delight!!!