{"product_id":"the-warmth-of-other-suns-isbn-9780679763888","title":"The Warmth of Other Suns","description":"\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eNEW YORK TIMES\u003c\/i\u003e BESTSELLER • NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD WINNER • ONE OF BARACK OBAMA’S FAVORITE BOOKS OF THE YEAR • \u003ci\u003eTIME’S\u003c\/i\u003e TEN BEST NONFICTION BOOKS OF THE DECADE • ONE OF THE \u003ci\u003eNEW YORK TIMES’S\u003c\/i\u003e FIVE BEST BOOKS OF THE 21ST CENTURY • A \u003ci\u003eKIRKUS REVIEWS \u003c\/i\u003eBEST NONFICTION BOOK OF THE CENTURY • \u003ci\u003eLOS ANGELES TIMES\u003c\/i\u003e’S #1 NONFICTION BOOK OF THE LAST 30 YEARS • AN \u003ci\u003eOPRAH DAILY \u003c\/i\u003eBEST NONFICTION BOOK OF THE PAST TWO DECADES\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e“A brilliant and stirring epic . . . Ms. Wilkerson does for the Great Migration what John Steinbeck did for the Okies in his fiction masterpiece, \u003ci\u003eThe Grapes of Wrath\u003c\/i\u003e; she humanizes history, giving it emotional and psychological depth.”—John Stauffer, \u003ci\u003eThe Wall Street Journal\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e“What she’s done with these oral histories is stow memory in amber.”—Lynell George, \u003ci\u003eLos Angeles Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWINNER: The Mark Lynton History Prize • The Anisfield-Wolf Award for Nonfiction • The \u003ci\u003eChicago Tribune\u003c\/i\u003e 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\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFINALIST: The PEN\/John Kenneth Galbraith Award for Nonfiction • Dayton Literary Peace Prize \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eONE OF THE TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: \u003ci\u003eThe New York Times, USA Today, Publishers Weekly, O: The Oprah Magazine, Salon, Newsday, The Daily Beast\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: \u003ci\u003eThe 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\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn 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.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWilkerson 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.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWilkerson brilliantly captures their first treacherous cross-country journeys by car and train and their new lives in colonies in the New World. \u003ci\u003eThe Warmth of Other Suns\u003c\/i\u003e 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.\u003cb\u003eONE OF THE TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe New York Times • USA Today • O: The Oprah Magazine • Publishers Weekly • Salon • Newsday • The Daily Beast\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: \u003ci\u003eThe 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\u003c\/i\u003e \u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eMARK LYNTON HISTORY PRIZE WINNER\u003cb\u003e\u003cb\u003e \u003ci\u003e•\u003c\/i\u003e \u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/b\u003eHEARTLAND AWARD WINNER \u003cb\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003e•\u003c\/i\u003e \u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/b\u003eDAYTON LITERARY PEACE PRIZE FINALIST\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“A landmark piece of nonfiction . . . sure to hold many surprises for readers of any race or experience….A mesmerizing book that warrants comparison to \u003ci\u003eThe Promised Land,\u003c\/i\u003e Nicholas Lemann’s study of the Great Migration’s early phase, and \u003ci\u003eCommon Ground,\u003c\/i\u003e 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.” \u003cb\u003e—Janet Maslin, \u003ci\u003eThe New York Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e“\u003ci\u003eThe Warmth of Other Suns\u003c\/i\u003e 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, \u003ci\u003eThe Grapes of Wrath\u003c\/i\u003e; she humanizes history, giving it emotional and psychological depth.” \u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eThe Wall Street Journal\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“[A] massive and masterly account of the Great Migration….A narrative epic rigorous enough to impress all but the crankiest of scholars, yet so immensely readable as to land the author a future place on Oprah’s couch.” \u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eThe New York Times Book Review \u003c\/i\u003e(Cover Review)\u003cbr\u003e \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“[A] deeply affecting, finely crafted and heroic book. . . .Wilkerson has taken on one of the most important demographic upheavals of the past century—a phenomenon whose dimensions and significance have eluded many a scholar—and told it through the lives of three people no one has ever heard of….This is narrative nonfiction, lyrical and tragic and fatalist. The story exposes; the story moves; the story ends. What Wilkerson urges, finally, isn’t argument at all; it’s compassion. Hush, and listen.” \u003cb\u003e—Jill Lepore, \u003ci\u003eThe New Yorker\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"\u003ci\u003eThe Warmth of Other Suns\u003c\/i\u003e 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.\" \u003cb\u003e—\u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003eLos Angeles Times \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“One of the most lyrical and important books of the season.\" \u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eBoston Globe\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“[An] extraordinary and evocative work.” \u003cb\u003e—\u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003eThe Washington Post\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e“Mesmerizing. . .” \u003cb\u003e—\u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003eChicago Tribune\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Scholarly but very readable, this book, for all its rigor, is so absorbing, it should come with a caveat: Pick it up only when you can lose yourself entirely.” \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003e—O, The Oprah Magazine\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"[An] indelible and compulsively readable portrait of race, class, and politics in 20th-century America. History is rarely distilled so finely.”\u003cb\u003e —\u003ci\u003eEntertainment Weekly \u003c\/i\u003e(\u003cb\u003eGrade: A)\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“An astonishing work. . . . Isabel Wilkerson delivers! . . . With the precision of a surgeon, Wilkerson illuminates the stories of bold, faceless African-Americans who transformed cities and industries with their hard work and determination to provide their children with better lives.” \u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003e—Essence\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Isabel Wilkerson’s majestic \u003ci\u003eThe Warmth of Other Suns\u003c\/i\u003e shows that not everyone bloomed, but the migrants—Wilkerson prefers to think of them as domestic immigrants—remade the entire country, North and South. It’s a monumental job of writing and reporting that lives up to its subtitle: \u003ci\u003eThe Epic Story of America’s Great Migration\u003c\/i\u003e.” \u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003e—USA Today\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e“[A] sweeping history of the Great Migration. . . . \u003ci\u003eThe Warmth of Other Suns\u003c\/i\u003e builds upon such purely academic works to make the migrant experience both accessible and emotionally compelling.” \u003cb\u003e—NPR.org\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e“\u003ci\u003eThe Warmth of Other Suns\u003c\/i\u003e is a beautifully written, in-depth analysis of what Wilkerson calls “one of the most underreported stories of the 20th century. . .  A masterpiece that sheds light on a significant development in our nation’s history.” \u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003e—The San Jose Mercury News\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“\u003ci\u003eThe Warmth of Other Suns\u003c\/i\u003e is a beautifully written book that, once begun, is nearly impossible to put aside. It is an unforgettable combination of tragedy and inspiration, and gripping subject matter and characters in a writing style that grabs the reader on Page 1 and never let’s go. . . . Woven into the tapestry of [three individuals] lives, in prose that is sweet to savor, Wilkerson tells the larger story, the general situation of life in the South for blacks. . . . If you read one only one book about history this year, read this. If you read only one book about African Americans this year, read this. If you read only one book this year, read this.” \u003cb\u003e—The Free Lance Star, Fredericksburg, Va.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"A\u003cb\u003e \u003c\/b\u003etruly auspicious debut. . . . The author deftly intersperses [her characters'] stories with short vignettes about other individuals and consistently provides the bigger picture without interrupting the flow of the narrative…Wilkerson’s focus on the personal aspect lends her book a markedly different, more accessible tone. Her powerful storytelling style, as well, gives this decades-spanning history a welcome novelistic flavor. An impressive take on the Great Migration.\"  \u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eKirkus, \u003c\/i\u003eStarred Review\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“[A] magnificent\u003cb\u003e,\u003c\/b\u003e extensively researched study of the great migration… The drama, poignancy, and romance of a classic immigrant saga pervade this book, hold the reader in its grasp, and resonate long after the reading is done.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e, Starred Review\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Not since Alex Haley’s \u003ci\u003eRoots\u003c\/i\u003e has there been a history of equal literary quality where the writing surmounts the rhythmic soul of fiction, where the writer’s voice sings a song of redemptive glory as true as Faulkner’s southern cantatas.”\u003cb\u003e —\u003ci\u003eThe San Francisco Examiner\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Profound, necessary and an absolute delight to read.” \u003cb\u003e—Toni Morrison\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e“\u003ci\u003eThe Warmth of Other Suns\u003c\/i\u003e is a sweeping and yet deeply personal tale of America’s hidden 20th century history - the long and difficult trek of Southern blacks to the northern and western cities. This is an epic for all Americans who want to understand the making of our modern nation.” \u003cb\u003e—Tom Brokaw\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e“A seminal work of narrative nonfiction. . . . You will never forget these people.” \u003cb\u003e—Gay Talese\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“With compelling prose and considered analysis, Isabel Wilkerson has given us a\u003cb\u003e \u003c\/b\u003elandmark portrait of one of the most significant yet little-noted shifts in American history: the migration of African-Americans from the Jim Crow South to the cities of the North and West.  It is a complicated tale, with an infinity of implications for questions of race, power, politics, religion, and class—implications that are unfolding even now.  This book will be long remembered, and savored.” \u003cb\u003e—Jon Meacham\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e“Isabel Wilkerson’s \u003ci\u003eThe Warmth of Other Suns\u003c\/i\u003e is an American masterpiece, a stupendous literary success that channels the social sciences as iconic biography in order to tell a vast story of a people's reinvention of itself and of a nation—the first complete history of the Great Black Migration from start to finish, north, east, west.” \u003cb\u003e—David Levering Lewis\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Isabel Wilkerson’s book is a\u003cb\u003e \u003c\/b\u003emasterful narrative of the rich wisdom and deep courage of a great people.  Don’t miss it!” \u003cb\u003e—Cornel West\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003eIsabel Wilkerson\u003c\/b\u003e won the 1994 Pulitzer Prize for Feature Writing for her reporting as Chicago bureau chief of \u003ci\u003eThe New York Times.\u003c\/i\u003e The award made her the first black woman in the history of American journalism to win a Pulitzer Prize and the first African American to win for individual reporting. She won the George Polk Award for her coverage of the Midwest and a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship for her research into the Great Migration. She has lectured on narrative writing at the Nieman Foundation at Harvard University and has served as Ferris Professor of Journalism at Princeton University and as the James M. Cox Jr. Professor of Journalism at Emory University. She is currently Professor of Journalism and Director of Narrative Nonfiction at Boston University. During the Great Migration, her parents journeyed from Georgia and southern Virginia to Washington, D.C., where she was born and reared. This is her first book.In the Land of the Forefathers\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eOur mattresses were made \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eof corn shucks\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eand soft gray Spanish moss \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003ethat hung from the trees. . . .\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFrom the swamps \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003ewe got soup turtles \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eand baby alligators\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eand from the woods \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003ewe got raccoon, \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003erabbit and possum.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e—Mahalia Jackson, Movin’ On Up\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLeaving\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThis land is first and foremost\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003ehis handiwork.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIt was he who brought order\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eout of primeval wilderness . . . \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWherever one looks in this land,\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003ewhatever one sees that is the work of man,\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003ewas erected by the toiling\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003estraining bodies of blacks.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e—David L. Cohn, God Shakes Creation\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThey fly from the land that bore them.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e—W. H. Stillwell\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e1\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eChickasaw County, Mississippi, Late October 1937\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eida mae brandon gladney\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003ethe night clouds were closing in on the salt licks east of the oxbow lakes along the folds in the earth beyond the Yalobusha River. The cotton was at last cleared from the field. Ida Mae tried now to get the children ready and to gather the clothes and quilts and somehow keep her mind off the churning within her. She had sold off the turkeys and doled out in secret the old stools, the wash pots, the tin tub, the bed pallets. Her husband was settling with Mr. Edd over the worth of a year’s labor, and she did not know what would come of it. None of them had been on a train before—not unless you counted the clattering local from Bacon Switch to Okolona, where, “by the time you sit down, you there,” as Ida Mae put it. None of them had been out of Mississippi. Or Chickasaw County, for that matter.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThere was no explaining to little James and Velma the stuffed bags and chaos and all that was at stake or why they had to put on their shoes and not cry and bring undue attention from anyone who might happen to see them leaving. Things had to look normal, like any other time they might ride into town, which was rare enough to begin with.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eVelma was six. She sat with her ankles crossed and three braids in her hair and did what she was told. James was too little to understand. He was three. He was upset at the commotion. Hold still now, James. Lemme put your shoes on, Ida Mae told him. James wriggled and kicked. He did not like shoes. He ran free in the field. What were these things? He did not like them on his feet. So Ida Mae let him go barefoot.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMiss Theenie stood watching. One by one, her children had left her and gone up north. Sam and Cleve to Ohio. Josie to Syracuse. Irene to Milwaukee. Now the man Miss Theenie had tried to keep Ida Mae from marrying in the first place was taking her away, too. Miss Theenie had no choice but to accept it and let Ida Mae and the grandchildren go for good. Miss Theenie drew them close to her, as she always did whenever anyone was leaving. She had them bow their heads. She whispered a prayer that her daughter and her daughter’s family be protected on the long journey ahead in the Jim Crow car.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“May the Lord be the first in the car,” she prayed, “and the last out.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWhen the time had come, Ida Mae and little James and Velma and all that they could carry were loaded into a brother-in-law’s truck, and the three of them went to meet Ida Mae’s husband at the train depot in Okolona for the night ride out of the bottomland.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e2\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWildwood, Florida, April 14, 1945\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003egeorge swanson starling\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003ea man named roscoe colton gave Lil George Starling a ride in his pickup truck to the train station in Wildwood through the fruit-bearing scrubland of central Florida. And Schoolboy, as the toothless orange pickers mockingly called him, boarded the Silver Meteor pointing north.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eA railing divided the stairs onto the train, one side of the railing for white passengers, the other for colored, so the soles of their shoes would not touch the same stair. He boarded on the colored side of the railing, a final reminder from the place of his birth of the absurdity of the world he was leaving.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHe was getting out alive. So he didn’t let it bother him. “I got on the car where they told me to get on,” he said years later.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHe hadn’t had time to bid farewell to everyone he wanted to. He stopped to say good-bye to Rachel Jackson, who owned a little café up on what they called the Avenue and the few others he could safely get to in the little time he had. He figured everybody in Egypt town, the colored section of Eustis, probably knew he was leaving before he had climbed onto the train, small as the town was and as much as people talked.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIt was a clear afternoon in the middle of April. He folded his tall frame into the hard surface of the seat, his knees knocking against the seat back in front of him. He was packed into the Jim Crow car, where the railroad stored the luggage, when the train pulled away at last. He was on the run, and he wouldn’t rest easy until he was out of range of Lake County, beyond the reach of the grove owners whose invisible laws he had broken.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe train rumbled past the forest of citrus trees that he had climbed since he was a boy and that he had tried to wrestle some dignity out of and, for a time, had. They could have their trees. He wasn’t going to lose his life over them. He had come close enough as it was.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHe had lived up to his family’s accidental surname. Starling. Distant cousin to the mockingbird. He had spoken up about what he had seen in the world he was born into, like the starling that sang Mozart’s own music back to him or the starling out of Shakespeare that tormented the king by speaking the name of Mortimer. Only, George was paying the price for tormenting the ruling class that owned the citrus groves. There was no place in the Jim Crow South for a colored starling like him.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHe didn’t know what he would do once he got to New York or what his life would be. He didn’t know how long it would take before he could send for Inez. His wife was mad right now, but she’d get over it once he got her there. At least that’s what he told himself. He turned his face to the North and sat with his back to Florida.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLeaving as he did, he figured he would never set foot in Eustis again for as long as he lived. And as he settled in for the twenty-three-hour train ride up the coast of the Atlantic, he had no desire to have anything to do with the town he grew up in, the state of Florida, or the South as a whole, for that matter.","brand":"Vintage","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46300664987877,"sku":"NP9780679763888","price":21.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9780679763888.jpg?v=1767742132","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/es\/products\/the-warmth-of-other-suns-isbn-9780679763888","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}