Audiobook22 hours
The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration
Written by Isabel Wilkerson
Narrated by Robin Miles
Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
4.5/5
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About this audiobook
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. From 1915 to 1970, this exodus of almost six million people changed the face of America. Wilkerson interviewed more than a thousand people, and gained access to previously untapped 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 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 state 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 medicine, becoming the personal physician to Ray Charles as part of a glitteringly successful career that allowed him to purchase a grand home where he often threw exuberant parties.
Wilkerson brilliantly captures her subjects' 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 their new 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 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.
With stunning 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 state 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 medicine, becoming the personal physician to Ray Charles as part of a glitteringly successful career that allowed him to purchase a grand home where he often threw exuberant parties.
Wilkerson brilliantly captures her subjects' 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 their new 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 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.
Editor's Note
Sweeping and riveting…
Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Isabel Wilkerson brings to life the previously overlooked story of the Great Migration, when millions of African Americans uprooted their lives to move from the South to cities across the US from 1915 to 1970. Sweeping and riveting, Wilkerson’s book made the ZORA Canon, a list of 100 of the greatest books written by African American women.
Reviews for The Warmth of Other Suns
Rating: 4.342222222222222 out of 5 stars
4.5/5
1,350 ratings155 reviews
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5This as a very interesting book for someone like me. Someone whose knowledge of recent American history is limited to the Civil Rights movement of the 1960's (courtesy of a High School History module), and whatever I can reliably take from TV and films. Which would be not much. It ties the general phenomenon of the 20th C migration of blacks from the South to North /West US together with the specific life stories of three such migrants.I had no idea how hard it was for people to leave the South: that it was an escape, not just a move. In towns where the local law ran it how they wanted, people literally snuck out in the middle of the night lest they be "caught" attempting to board a train. I had a vague idea that the North and South were different, but this book really showed me how. Racism was all over the country, but in the South it was backed up by the very real threat of a gruesome death. That this occurred in such recent times still makes my chest feel tight in sadness and disbelief.The community and social support people had in the South may have been partly an act of necessity in the face of such terrible hardship and fear, but it was sorely missed by those families who fled. They arrived to very different ways in Northern cities, and had to adjust. But- they had their freedom. As time marched on, the Northern migrants saw changes in their home states, but with new lives most stayed where they were. And these patterns of movement changed American cities for ever.There was a lot of information in this book. And a lot of repetition. I feel there could have been a good 100-120 pages removed and it wouldn't have altered the story. The short sections that detailed the personal stories were hopped between fairly quickly, but were then backed up by some historical and social facts. It is a great method of telling a non fiction narrative. But too bitsy for me, and a case of there being a little too much information. A very worthwhile read.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I had been meaning to read this book ever since it came out, but the national uprising against police brutality following the killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson pushed me to finally pick it up. I felt it was necessary to improve my understanding of the history of structural racism in the US.Isabel Wilkerson's book covers several decades and a huge geography but she keeps her discussion focused on the experience of her three protagonists who left the South because of their particular experiences under Jim Crow and the conditions they faced in the north (or, in the case of Robert Foster, California).Wilkerson writes in the book's introduction about what might be "the biggest underreported story of the twentieth century":"Over the course of six decades, some six million black southerners left the land of their forefathers and fanned out across the country for an uncertain existence in nearly every other corner of America. The Great Migration would become a turing point in history. It would transform urban America and recast the social and political order of every city it touched."Wilkerson's book is a significant effort in understanding the leaderless Great Migration's meaning and its legacy. Though she focuses on three main characters throughout, Wilkerson interviewed 1,200 people for the book and she also cites a variety of secondary sources. So while the book is narrative-driven, it is grounded in comprehensive research.Some have criticized the book for repeating details but it seemed obvious that this was done so that chapters can work as stand-alone pieces, making this book a good resource for teachers. So I don't think this should be held against the book; it would be a shame if it hadn't been approached with classroom education in mind.I do think this book is essential reading for anyone wishing to understand why racial inequality is so entrenched in the United States today. I plan to follow it up with Michelle Alexander's The New Jim Crow and Angela Davis' Are Prisons Obsolete?
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Fabulous and touching
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Deeply moving history of the post-World War I mass migration of African Americans from the deep South to northern and western cities where they expected to find better lives. The author focuses on three individuals and their families. While they escaped the brutal violence and legally-mandated segregation they had grown up with, they found themselves in a new world that was less than idyllic.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5May be the most powerful book I read this year.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5This is an depth study of the causes, impact and motivations for "The Great Migration" of African Americans out of the South into the North of the US between 1915-1970. The author follows the migration and lives after migration of 3 individuals covering 3 different decades and 3 cities and uses this to compare and contrast. The over arching themes of the book include supporting the understanding that migrants from the South were better educated, harder working and more stable than most sociologists would admit and that there is a compelling argument that these people were more like immigrants than migrants. It also offers an insightful look at individual and personal happiness based on how the individuals handled the cultural change from a personal perspective. This makes the book much more than just a social study, much more interesting because of the life lessons that are provided regarding how people adjust or don't. The all more telling side of human nature that human beings are unwilling to admit mistakes, unwilling to face realities and unable in the end to deny who they really are comes out in full force. I found the book much more interesting on the level of the personal behavior and how these people dealt with change than on the overall sociological level that was the authors stated purpose. This is a book I will undoubtedly re-visit, there is a great deal to it. I can easily recommend it.