NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • In this beautifully written masterwork, the Pulitzer Prize–winnner and bestselling author of Caste 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 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.
MARK LYNTON HISTORY PRIZE WINNERHEARTLAND AWARD WINNER DAYTON LITERARY PEACE PRIZE FINALISTNAMED ONE OF THE TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BYThe 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 BYThe 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 The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration by Isabel Wilkerson is a powerful and moving narrative that chronicles the lives of three African Americans who left the Jim Crow South in search of a better life.
The book follows the stories of Ida Mae Brandon, George Swanson Starling, and Robert Pershing Foster as they make their way from the rural South to the urban North, Midwest, and West. Wilkerson tells their stories with compassion and empathy, painting a vivid picture of the challenges and triumphs they faced along the way.
The Warmth of Other Suns is a must-read for anyone interested in American history, race relations, or the story of the Great Migration. It is a powerful reminder of the struggles that African Americans have faced in this country and the resilience and determination they have shown in overcoming them.
Here are some key themes explored in the book:
- The Jim Crow South: Wilkerson paints a vivid picture of the oppressive and racist conditions that African Americans faced in the Jim Crow South. She describes the segregation, violence, and discrimination that made it impossible for many African Americans to live with dignity and respect.
- The Great Migration: The book chronicles the mass movement of African Americans from the South to the North, Midwest, and West that took place between 1910 and 1970. Wilkerson tells the stories of three individuals who made this journey, highlighting the challenges and triumphs they faced along the way.
- The African American experience: The Warmth of Other Suns is a powerful reminder of the struggles that African Americans have faced in this country. Wilkerson tells the stories of three individuals who overcame tremendous obstacles to achieve their dreams.
The Warmth of Other Suns is a must-read for anyone who wants to understand the history of the Great Migration and the African American experience in the United States.
