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reeder_reads 's review for:
The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration
by Isabel Wilkerson
challenging
dark
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Wilkerson released The Warmth of Other Suns back in 2010. It’s an epic, thick (500+), Pulitzer Prize winning, nonfiction gem! The book documents the decade long migration of black Americans who left the south and moved to northern and western cities throughout the United States. She interviewed thousands of people, but focuses on three narratives throughout the book.
Y’all...this book taught me more about American history than anything my AP history class taught me. It opened my eyes to the realities of the Jim Crow south in the 20th century. It explained migration patterns and social-economic consequences. It detailed black American struggles juxtaposed to European immigrant struggles after WWI. I can’t emphasize how much I learned about my own country’s history by reading this masterpiece.
I was intimidated to read this book because of its size, but now I regret waiting so long to read it. I wish I read it years ago so I could discuss it with my grandparents, who were alive throughout most of the Great Migration. I kept thinking of them and comparing their ages to those ages of the people Wilkerson interviewed. If anything, it gave me additional perspective around how slavery and reconstruction weren’t THAT long ago at all.
This is the only book I’ve finished so far in February. It’s heavy with detail (rightfully so) and I had to Google a lot of information while I read it. I used so.many.sticky.tabs. This book def changed my reading pace for the month, but I’m totally fine with that because I learned so much.
Y’all...this book taught me more about American history than anything my AP history class taught me. It opened my eyes to the realities of the Jim Crow south in the 20th century. It explained migration patterns and social-economic consequences. It detailed black American struggles juxtaposed to European immigrant struggles after WWI. I can’t emphasize how much I learned about my own country’s history by reading this masterpiece.
I was intimidated to read this book because of its size, but now I regret waiting so long to read it. I wish I read it years ago so I could discuss it with my grandparents, who were alive throughout most of the Great Migration. I kept thinking of them and comparing their ages to those ages of the people Wilkerson interviewed. If anything, it gave me additional perspective around how slavery and reconstruction weren’t THAT long ago at all.
This is the only book I’ve finished so far in February. It’s heavy with detail (rightfully so) and I had to Google a lot of information while I read it. I used so.many.sticky.tabs. This book def changed my reading pace for the month, but I’m totally fine with that because I learned so much.