The Warmth of Other Suns

The Epic Story of America's Great Migration

By: Isabel Wilkerson

Narrated by: Robin Miles

Length: 22 hrs and 40 mins

Publisher's summary

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.

NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD WINNER
LYNTON HISTORY PRIZE WINNER
HEARTLAND AWARD WINNER
DAYTON LITERARY PEACE PRIZE FINALIST

NAMED ONE OF THE TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY

The 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 BY

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

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.

©2010 Isabel Wilkerson (P)2011 Brilliance Audio, all rights reserved.

Critic reviews

“A landmark piece of nonfiction . . . sure to hold many surprises for readers of any race or experience….A mesmerizing book that warrants comparison to The Promised Land, Nicholas Lemann’s study of the Great Migration’s early phase, and Common Ground, J. Anthony Lukas’s great, close-range look at racial strife in Boston….[Wilkerson’s] closeness with, and profound affection for, her subjects reflect her deep immersion in their stories and allow the reader to share that connection.” (Janet Maslin, The New York Times)

“ The Warmth of Other Suns is a brilliant and stirring epic, the first book to cover the full half-century of the Great Migration… Wilkerson combines impressive research…with great narrative and literary power. 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, Wall Street Journal)

" The Warmth of Other Suns is epic in its reach and in its structure. Told in a voice that echoes the magic cadences of Toni Morrison or the folk wisdom of Zora Neale Hurston’s collected oral histories, Wilkerson’s book pulls not just the expanse of the migration into focus but its overall impact on politics, literature, music, sports — in the nation and the world." (Lynell George, Los Angeles Times)

Powerful Truth!

Loved it! It was a detailed depiction of how it was. It was my Father's story. The details he never shared because he was moving us forward. Yet a history that ties together yesterday and makes sense of today

The Warmth the Other Sun

What a book to be educated about migration and how people of color moved from the south to different areas of the United States. It reminded me of my parents migration from Texas and Oklahoma. I thought about how they struggled to fit into a new world and achieve their dreams.

Every White person should read this!

This book begins a few years before I was born, but tells of a parallel life to the one I lived as a privileged White person. I could think back to what I was doing during incidents in the lives of the characters depicted in the story. I can only say that I was appalled.... by what happened, but equally by the fact that I was totally unaware. There is no way to undo what has been done, but much that must be done to repair the damage.

very educational interesting book

listening to this book help me to better understand racial justice has that happened to African Americans post-slavery. it also helps me to grasp why there is still great sensitivity regarding this subject even today

A well researched history

I found this book to be extremely educational. I’m very thankful to be able to learn history that was never taught to me during my schooling. I think it’s important that this history be taught in our schools. It helped open my eyes to a lot of suffering that I was unaware of.

Amazing insight full novel.

This book needs to be taught in our schools. It makes the devastating story of Black Americans in the 20th Century both impactful and inspiring. It gives gives the reader/listener rich and engaging stories while shedding light on the discrimination and struggle.

Eye Opening to an incredible part of US History!

Having grown up in Southeast Louisiana I had of course known about Jim Crow but this book shined a light on the ignorance and insecurity of whites then and even now. The stories of the persons and families involved are very well researched and relayed! Outstanding work!

Excellent!

The Warmth of Other Suns is a riveting retelling of three black individual’s lives from their childhoods in the South into Adulthood, through migration to different cities in the north and then post migration life. I learned so much that I was never aware of from my own childhood in Chicago, one of the migrant’s destinations and eventual home.
I highly recommend this book.

Excellent

This is one of the best books that I have EVER read. It is well researched, go from general to specific information, and allows to get to know the three main families. It allows me to imagine what it might have been for my family traveling from Mississippi to Arkansas, to Missouri, and ending up in southern Illinois. I LOVED this book! Kudos to Isabel Wilkerson!

THANK YOU!!!

I am Mulatto. I have never been taught or informed about the REAL history of these brave people. Thank you so much! This book is amazing. The delivery/narration made it that much more amazing!! Every American needs to know what is in this book.