2024 the best non fiction books of all time review

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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.

From the Publisher

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Vintage; Reprint edition (October 4, 2011)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 640 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0679763880
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0679763888
Lexile measure ‏ : ‎ 1160L
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 2 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.11 x 1.59 x 9.22 inches
Reviewer: David Oaks
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: A Compelling Journey Through an Often Overlooked Chapter of American History
Review: "The Great Migration" is an eye-opening and deeply moving account of a pivotal period in American history that I, like many others, was largely unaware of before reading this book. The author masterfully weaves together personal stories and historical context to create a rich tapestry of the African American experience during this massive population shift.What struck me most were the individual narratives woven throughout the book. These personal stories are not only compelling but truly unforgettable. They bring to life the hopes, struggles, and triumphs of those who made the brave decision to leave their homes in the South for the promise of a better life in the North and West.As someone who had little prior knowledge of the Great Migration, I found this book to be both educational and emotionally impactful. It shed light on how this movement shaped modern urban landscapes and contributed to the civil rights movement.The book's relevance extends beyond its historical content. It offers valuable insights into themes of migration, urban development, and cultural change that remain pertinent today. For instance, it reminded me of a recent experience described by a teacher where students participated in a "Walk with Amal," marching alongside a puppet representing a Syrian refugee girl. Both the book and such modern experiences highlight the ongoing importance of understanding migration and its impact on our communities.I highly recommend "The Great Migration" to anyone interested in American history, social movements, or simply looking for a powerful and enlightening read. It's a monument to the resilience of the human spirit and a crucial piece of our national story that deserves to be widely known and understood.

Reviewer: Baseball Fan
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: A Brilliant, Eye-opening, Educational Book!
Review: Migrations have occurred throughout human history wherein various peoples have been forced to flee their homes for fear of persecution based on race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, political opinion, armed conflict, civil war, et al., and where the government has been unwilling or unable to protect them. "The Warmth of Other Suns" by Isabel Wilkerson relates the epic story of America's `Great Migration', a rural-to-urban interregional migration during which millions of African Americans fled the oppressive southern `racial caste system' during 1915-1970, in order to take advantage of job opportunities in the more tolerant northern and western states. Wilkerson's recreation of the `Great Migration' is based on in-depth interviews with over one thousand migrants, but is focused on the life experiences of three specific migrants (Ida Mae Brandon Gladney, George Swanson Starling, and Robert Joseph Pershing Foster) chosen, respectively, to represent the three great receiving cities (Chicago, New York City, and Los Angeles) to which they fled. Wilkerson argues that the `Great Migration' has been a largely unrecognized immigration within America, which is her expressed reason for writing this book.Exodus of African Americans from the South to the West and North -Wilkerson devotes the first two thirds of this book to describing the harsh conditions (e.g., racial caste system, sharecropper system) for blacks in the south and bordering states, the more favorable conditions (e.g., more tolerance, job/educational opportunities) in the northern and western states, and the process of `crossing over' from the south to the north and west during the Great Migration. Her presentation is both effective and persuasive.* Racial Caste System - Wilkerson describes, in stark terms, the `racial caste system' which operated mainly in the southern and bordering states from 1877 to the 1970s. This `racial caste system, which was enforced through `Jim Crow' laws, legalized racial segregation and greatly curtailed the rights of African Americans. The `racial caste system' was undergirded by real and threatened lynchings (public executions) carried out by mobs. Wilkerson infers that the `racial caste system' violated American core values and principles (e.g., democracy, individual freedom, fundamental rights, equality and non-discrimination) and was the bane of American society, doing great damage to many people of all persuasions, not just blacks. Wilkerson states, "...Jim Crow had a way of turning everyone against one another, not just white against black or landed against lowly, but poor against poorer and black against black for an extra scrap of privilege....the caste system was a complicated thing that had a way of bringing out the worst in just about all concerned."* Sharecropping - Wilkerson introduces the reader to `sharecropping', a farm tenancy system wherein the `croppers' (mainly blacks) worked the land owned by the `planters' (whites) in return for a share of the crop (mainly cotton) in lieu of wages. Wilkerson indicates that picking cotton, the primary crop, was a burdensome and backbreaking form of labor. Wilkerson points out that the sharecropping system was open to widespread abuse by the planters because the croppers were commonly uneducated/illiterate, and lacked the protection of existing laws and state authorities. Wilkerson indicates that the sharecropping system enabled the planters (whites) to continue controlling the lives of the blacks who worked their land.* Tolerance and Job/Educational Opportunities in the North and West - Wilkerson points out that the `racial caste system' and the Jim Crow laws, for the most part, did not apply in the north and west. Wilkerson indicates that migrants were generally able to get jobs; while some obtained work in industries such as railroads, meatpacking, stockyards, or domestic work, others managed to become physicians, legislators, undertakers, or insurance men.Aftermath (post 1970) and Epilogue -Wilkerson devotes most of the remaining pages to analyzing the aftermath of the Great Migration, describing what happened to migrants (and their families) from 1970 to the current day. In the epilogue, which follows, Wilkerson explores various profound questions:* Did the `Great Migration' achieve the goals of those who willed it?* Were the migrants better off (i.e., gains exceed losses) for having left the south?* Were the overall human/cultural/social/political/economic impacts on the receiving cities in the north and west, and the rural south positive?Wilkerson acknowledges that some social scientist have expressed the view that the answer to the above questions is `no'; however she puts forth powerful and convincing arguments to the contrary. Wilkerson states, "With the benefit of hindsight, the century between Reconstruction and the end of the Great Migration perhaps may be seen as a necessary stage of upheaval. It was a transition from an era when one race owned another, to an era when the dominant class gave up ownership but kept control over the people it once had owned, at all costs, using violence even; to the eventual acceptance of the servant caste into the mainstream".The Warmth of Other Suns is a brilliant, eye-opening, educational book. Wilkerson's presentation is both effective and persuasive, and greatly enhanced my understanding of the issues at hand. I would recommend this book to all readers without regard to race, religion, nationality, et al.

Reviewer: Sasha Lauren, Author
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Historic masterpiece! Well done!
Review: This book is a meticulously researched saga of the Great Migration of African Americans in the Jim Crow South to the West and North. The narrative follows three brave individuals on their journeys. It is a amazing achievement about real heros, packed with raw history.I'm at a loss as to how to write a review worthy of this masterpiece. Ms. Wilkerson's exemplary storytelling and years of interviews and research and her own history come together to tell this incredible story. She writes about the best and worst of humanity from punishing lynchings to unyielding courage and perseverence of the oppressed.Here are a few of the many passages that stayed with me."A series of unpredictable events and frustrations led to the decisions of Ida Mae Gladney, George Swanson Starling, and Robert Pershing Foster to leave the South for good. Their decisions were separate and distinct from anything in the outside world except that they were joining a road already plied decades before by people as discontented as themselves. A thousand hurts and killed wishes led to a final determination by each fed-up individual on the verge of departure, which, added to millions of others, made up what could be called a migration.""Any migration takes some measure of energy, planning, and forethought. It requires not only the desire for something better but the willingness to act on that desire to achieve it. Thus the people who undertake such a journey are more likely to be either among the better educated of their homes of origin or those most motivated to make it in the New World, researchers have found.""Contrary to modern-day assumptions, for much of the history of the United States—from the Draft Riots of the 1860s to the violence over desegregation a century later—riots were often carried out by disaffected whites against groups perceived as threats to their survival. Thus riots would become to the North what lynchings were to the South, each a display of uncontained rage by put-upon people directed toward the scapegoats of their condition. Nearly every big northern city experienced one or more during the twentieth century. Each outbreak pitted two groups that had more in common with each other than either of them realized. Both sides were made up of rural and small-town people who had traveled far in search of the American Dream, both relegated to the worst jobs by industrialists who pitted one group against the other. Each side was struggling to raise its families in a cold, fast, alien place far from their homelands and looked down upon by the earlier, more sophisticated arrivals. They were essentially the same people except for the color of their skin, and many of them arrived into these anonymous receiving stations at around the same time, one set against the other and unable to see the commonality of their mutual plight."In the following, Robert Pershing Foster tries to get a hotel room to rest in New Mexico on his long drive to California:"He replayed the rejections in his mind as he drove the few yards to the next motel. Maybe he hadn’t explained himself well enough. Maybe it wasn’t clear how far he had driven. Maybe he should let them know he saw through them, after all those years in the South. He always prepared a script when he spoke to a white person. Now he debated with himself as to what he should say.He didn’t want to make a case of it. He never intended to march over Jim Crow or try to integrate anybody’s motel. He didn’t like being where he wasn’t wanted. And yet here he was, needing something he couldn’t have. He debated whether he should speak his mind, protect himself from rejection, say it before they could say it. He approached the next exchange as if it were a job interview. Years later he would practically refer to it as such. He rehearsed his delivery and tightened his lines. “It would have been opening-night jitters if it was theater,” he would later say.He pulled into the lot. There was nobody out there but him, and he was the only one driving up to get a room. He walked inside. His voice was about to break as he made his case.“I’m looking for a room,” he began. “Now, if it’s your policy not to rent to colored people, let me know now so I don’t keep getting insulted.” A white woman in her fifties stood on the other side of the front desk. She had a kind face, and he found it reassuring. And so he continued.“It’s a shame that they would do a person like this,” he said. “I’m no robber. I’ve got no weapons. I’m not a thief. I’m a medical doctor. I’m a captain that just left Austria, which was Salzburg. And the German Army was just outside of Vienna. If there had been a conflict, I would have been protecting you. I would not do people the way I’ve been treated here.”It was the most he’d gotten to say all night, and so he went on with his delivery more determinedly than before. “I have money to pay for my services,” he said. “Now, if you don’t rent to colored people, let me know so I can go on to California. This is inhuman. I’m a menace to anybody driving. I’m a menace to myself and to the public, driving as tired as I am.”She listened, and she let him make his case. She didn’t talk about mistaken vacancy signs or just-rented rooms. She didn’t cut him off. She listened, and that gave him hope.“One minute, Doctor,” she said, turning and heading toward a back office.His heart raced as he watched her walk to the back. He could see her consulting with a man through the glass window facing the front desk, deciding in that instant his fate and his worth. They discussed it for some time and came out together. The husband did the talking. He had a kind, sad face. Robert held his breath. “We’re from Illinois,” the husband said. “We don’t share the opinion of the people in this area. But if we take you in, the rest of the motel owners will ostracize us. We just can’t do it. I’m sorry.”Wilkerson wrote this about Harlem and the Harlem Renaissance:“The basic collapse of all organized efforts to exclude Negroes from Harlem was the inability of any group to gain total and unified support of all white property owners in the neighborhood,” Osofsky wrote. “Landlords forming associations by blocks had a difficult time keeping people on individual streets united.”The free-spirited individualism of immigrants and newcomers seeking their fortune in the biggest city in the country thus worked to the benefit of colored people needing housing in Harlem. It opened up a place that surely would have remained closed in the straitjacketed culture of the South.By the 1940s, when George Starling arrived, Harlem was a mature and well-established capital of black cultural life, having peaked with the Harlem Renaissance, plunged into Depression after the 1929 stock market crash, climbed back to life during World War II, and, unbeknownst to the thousands still arriving from Florida, the Carolinas, Georgia, and Virginia, not to mention Jamaica and the rest of the Caribbean when George got there, was at that precise moment as rollickingly magical as it was ever likely to be.Seventh Avenue was the Champs-Élysées, a boulevard wide and ready for any excuse for a parade, whether the marches of the minister Father Divine or several thousand Elks in their capes and batons, and, on Sunday afternoons, the singular spectacle called The Stroll. It was where the people who had been laundresses, bellmen, and mill hands in the South dressed up as they saw themselves to be—the men in frock coats and monocles, the women in fox stoles and bonnets with ostrich feathers, the “servants of the rich Park and Fifth Avenue families” wearing “hand-me-downs from their employers,” all meant to evoke startled whispers from the crowd on the sidewalk: “My Gawd, did you see that hat?”Virtually every black luminary was living within blocks of the others in the elevator buildings and lace-curtained brownstones up on Sugar Hill, from Langston Hughes to Thurgood Marshall to Paul Robeson, Duke Ellington, and W. E. B. Du Bois, on and off, to Richard Wright, who had now outgrown even Chicago, and his friend and protégé Ralph Ellison, who actually lived in Washington Heights but said it was close enough to be Harlem and pretty much considered it so."If I were to approach reading this book again for the first time, I would slow down and savor it. I might expect to read it over a period of several months instead of over a week as I did. There is so much to take in. I rushed it.

Reviewer: Amazon Customer
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: Great description and must read for anyone interested in black history. Three great non-fiction stories telling a history of the great migration

Reviewer: Amazon Customer
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: Bastante informação sobre a história da divisão de brancos e negros dos estados unidos. Uma obra de leitura obrigatória para entender a divisão e segregação do país

Reviewer: Francois von Zedtwitz
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: Excellent, well researched book. Reads like a novel!

Reviewer: Heather
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: The history lesson never taught in schools! Well written with real accounts of what happened in Jim Crow law. A must read!

Reviewer: Balkesh Singh : Product is not same as shown online. Terribly diffrent
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: A must for read holistic persons