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)

Great storytelling and history

Excellent book about the Jim Crow south, and civil rights movement as told through statistics, historical events and also the intimate story of three individuals, Robert Pershing Foster (Louisiana to Los Angeles), George Starling (Florida to New York), Ida Mae Gladney (Mississippi to Chicago). Definitely a labor of love as it helped Isabel better understand her parents.

If "The Help", opened the door a bit, this is an excellent follow-up to kick that door down. I have a better inkling now. While I can't totally understand, Ms. Wilkerson helped bring it home.

Roots Left Off, The Warmth Of Other Suns Picks Up

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Already have! The stories are a rich tapestry of the Black American migration to the north following the development of Jim Crow laws in the south. I had never considered the "how or why" so many blacks live in the cities of Detroit, St. Louis, Milwaukee, or Los Angeles. This book opened my eyes to yet another chapter in the American experience. It reminded me of the phrase "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it". The strength and perserverance of some people amaze and humble me when I read a story like The Warmth of Other Suns.

Best listen in a long time.

I loved this book. I taught US History for 20 years and knew of the Great MIgration, I only wish I had read this book long ago as a resource. It looks at the event both in a broad picture analysis of the migration as a whole, and narrows focus to the experiences of three individuals who made the move from South to North. I liked the many comparisons she made to the immigration process that my ancestors would have experienced coming from Europe and how similar they were to African Americans moving north. The use of three particpants biographies really personalizes the listen as you come to like and respect them to varying degrees. The stories of these three ordinary people taking part in an extraordinary event draws you into the story completely. The author writes so well of them that it proves a biography does not have to focus on the lives of great men to be interesting if it is so well written. You celebrate with them when they experience success and may shed a tear when they experience loss or hardship. The book is particulaly enlightening on the African American experience in the South and North. The biographys are broken down into three eras. Life in the South and what drove people to leave. The move to a new life in the North and the early struggles to assimilate into a new culture and finally the long term establishment of a life in the new land. She makes many persuasive arguments about the stereotypes developed and how the migration changed both the North and the South and the people involved. The reader was new to me, but she has a great voice to listen to that drew you into the text even more. A perfect match of book to reader.

EXCELLENT

Would you consider the audio edition of The Warmth of Other Suns to be better than the print version?

Did not read the print version

What other book might you compare The Warmth of Other Suns to and why?

"The Worst Hard Time" by Timothy Egan

Any additional comments?

This book should be required reading in all High Schools.

Let us always remember and understand.

I recommend that everyone read "The Warmth of Other Suns" a history of the America's Great Migration on southern blacks to norther and western states to escape Jim Crow, the Klan, and share cropping. It is important now more than ever. It is clear that we again slide backwards. The stories in this book should instill shame in every American white, and fear and pride in every American of African heritage. many of the tales are sad and horrifying as those of the Holocaust or any genocide, yet critically important to hear and remember. Others are heartwarming and speak to the resilience of human spirit. Those who forget the past are doomed to repeat it.

History never to be forgotten

Would you listen to The Warmth of Other Suns again? Why?

Maybe not this particular book--it's a narrative based on facts from interviews and memories, very vivid. More vivid than Stockett's The Help with the horror of Jim Crow dominated lives. But once heard, I would turn to additional literature or memoir about the lives of black people in the US.

Breathtaking.

So beautiful and simply required reading for all Americans. It is the best sort of popular history, and so well performed.

Easy-To-Follow Migration Experience

Loved the audiobook! It made the story much easier to follow than reading the physical book. (Just a personal thing for me.) I actually started the beginning of the physical book for a school assignment and remembered only a few things, such as Ida Mae's culture shock with the big city of Detroit and Robert's drive to California. Still interested in this work, I started over with the audiobook and picked up lots of things that I missed before. (I didn't know George was a train conductor! I love trains!)

I'm docking one star from "Performance" because Robin Miles mispronounced a word or two toward the beginning of the book (e.g. adding an "s" to a singular word). Otherwise, she was a great narrator, as she brought motion and life to the story and even used an authentic southern accent to the dialogues.

Brilliant

This is a topic that should be covered in every high school history class. It tied things together and gave a timeline to individual things I have already known. It was nice to pick people that took very different routes/directions and follow their lives. The audio narrator (Robin Miles) was a gifted storyteller. Gave an overall rating of 4 stars because it could have been shorter if somethings were edited out since they were covered in previous chapters.

Moving. Enlightening.

so much about recent times that I never knew or understood, described in vivid ways I could feel, smell, taste, and remember. this book will likely change any listener... for the better.