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The Warmth Of Other Suns: The Epic Story Of America's Great Migration (2010)

by Isabel Wilkerson(Favorite Author)

4.26 of 5 Votes: 3

ISBN

0679444327 (ISBN13: 9780679444329)

languge

English

genre

History & Biography

publisher

Random House

review 1: There is an interesting confluence of events going on in 2011. It is the 150th anniversary of the Civil War; it is the 50th anniversary of the Freedom Rides and the Civil Rights movement; and I have just finished reading The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson. The book tells the story of the great migration of blacks from the south to the north and west between 1918 and the 1970s. It follows the particular stories of three people, two men and one woman, who move from Louisiana, Mississippi, and Florida and end up in New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles. I found the book fascinating because I knew so little about this chapter of American history. I had heard, as most of us have, about the time of Jim Crow laws in the South, but the personal nature of the stories that Wi... morelkerson tells re-emphasized just how stifling and dangerous those times were. I never realized what an act of courage it took to leave the South, given the death threats that followed these people on their journeys. I never thought about what it must be like to take a train from the north to the south or the south to the north and passengers having to change cars at the border between the two to segregate or integrate depending on which way they were going. Wilkerson chose subjects who left the South at three different decades during the migration and went to three different cities. Their stories complemented each other nicely?allowing Wilkerson to show commonalities in their narratives while at the same time allowing her to share the differences which made the stories more personal and memorable. I?ve been reading a day-by-day blog of Civil War history. As I write this, Fort Sumter has been taken, but Bull Run has yet to happen. As I read each entry and think about the long war yet to come, I wonder what the slaves must have been thinking as the start of the conflict ensued. I imagine that many of them must have hoped that this war would be the beginning of the end. After reading this book, my only thought is what a long, long journey they have in front of them. Highly recommended!
review 2: I've found myself having so many conversations lately in which there is a lack of understanding (often, my own) about the systemic racism and historic policies that created many of the challenges our cities and neighborhoods face today as we strive to eradicate poverty and increase equitable opportunity. This book, while long and occasionally repetitive, filled in so much of that history for me and gave me a lot of useful insight about how our country's past -- particularly after slavery ended -- shaped our current situation. Wilkerson chose to follow three individuals whose migrations were quasi-representative of the three main waves of African-American migrations from the south, and I liked that she gave a "face" to each of those populations, though the jumping back and forth between each individual was occasionally confusing. If your high school history instruction was seriously lacking (as mine was), this should be required reading. less

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