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)

A Classic in our times

this book should be considered a classic and added to school curriculums. It tells a story that needs to be heard and learned in a manner that is engaging.

What a Brilliant Achievement!

What "Roots" is to slavery, "The Warmth of Other Suns" is to the Great Migration. Wilkerson masterfully weaves a rich tapestry of heartache, tragedy, and triumph by sharing the tales of three different individuals from three different time periods migrating from three different parts of the country. Although they never knew one another or even crossed paths, Isabel Wilkerson maintained uniformity across the book by tapping into each one's determination to achieve a better way of life. Robin Miles' warm voice securely held my attention over the 22+ hours running time.

I bought three printed copies and two CD copies of this book as gifts. An additional hardcover copy sits on my living room bookshelf. THAT's how good it is.

One of the best American reads of all time.

This book is just incredible. The author does an outstanding job of transfixing the audience through the historic changes and making us understand the weight of racial tensions, historic terrorism, importance and overall courageous efforts that made up the Great Migration. Stories often overlooked throughout American history, this should be shared in every household, school, hell. Required reading for every American. It will remain cherished as one of my favorite reads and I can't provide enough rave reviews or more positive recommendations. Devour. This. BOOK!!!

Astounding

First, this is an amazing way to tell social history, by telling the personal histories of three ordinary people growing up in the South and moving to New York, Chicago, and LA. I've read first-person accounts of Black life in the South during the 20th century and have been horrified by some of the personal accounts. But this book makes the startling case that the Jim Crow South wasn't a matter of occasional acts of cruelty but of pervasive cruelty and oppression that affected all Black Southerners no matter what their educational level, their behavior, or their class. And it makes the case that Jim Crow did not stop once you crossed the border into the North or West. As a white person growing up in the South during the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s, I had no idea. Read it.

Great Book, great read. Highly recommend

This is a book you want to keep going with because you want to find out what happens. I found this book to be very informative, kept my attention, and provided information that all people really need to know. It relays the story of 3 people who migrate from the south, what motivated them to move, how they did it, and what happened to them and their families once they got away from the south.. I highly recommend this book to everyone.

Eye Opening and Watering

The narration was engaging. I can't believe this hasn't been adapted into a multi season tv series. I came here to get an understanding of something I now feel may have been intentionally left out of the story I've been told about our shared history. Tears of sorrow and joy for my fellow Americans while following these inspiring story lines. Thank you to everyone involved for making this accessible to me.

Extremely Insightful

I just learned of this book recently, and thoroughly appreciated it. I can't say I enjoyed it, because it's hard to enjoy learning about the atrocities that one race carries out against another. My own white race is guilty of so many sins, and Isabel Wilkerson reveals some of them in such a beautiful, narrative style, without hitting anyone with a sledge hammer. Extremely well written and provides so much context and detail. I can't recommend this book enough. Oh, and the narration.....simply superb!

Should be required reading in high school

Very well done. The book is entertaining while still being very educational. Appreciated the Epilog and Afterword.

Fascinating look at a point in US history

Robin Miles brings this sorry alive as she follows three real people form their days in the south to their plans to flee the Jim Crow south for a new (and still challenging) live in New York, Chicago, and LA. Insightful and well-told. Learned a lot.

Inspired by “The Warmth of Other Suns”.

A moving, touching, magnificent read. I am 64 years of age and I learned some history that I never knew. It caused me to reflect on my own life and what will I do with the time that I have left on this planet. I am inspired to embrace each moment, each circumstance, each challenge and each soul that comes before me.