“The Warmth of Other Suns” by Isabel Wilkerson – The Forgotten Wave of 1915 to 1970

The twentieth century may very well be one of the most turbulent ones: countless wars and failed political regimes plague the past century, such as both World Wars and the fall of communism. Perhaps it is because we finally developed effective mass media and communication systems, but it remains that the twentieth century has a lot to teach us, with many phenomena still to be explored. 

In The Warmth of Other Suns, Isabel Wilkerson does just that and looks into a part of American history many do not bother with: the huge wave of immigrants that was pouring in from 1915 to 1970. However, this isn’t a boring history lesson... Wilkerson knows better than that. Instead, the author preferred to a factual and historically-accurate but novelized story following three separate individuals.

The first one is Ida Mae Gladney, who leaves sharecropping in 1937 to settle down in Chicago as a blue collar worker, and lives long enough to vote for Obama when he ran for the Illinois Senate Seat. The second story is that of George Starling who, in 1945, leaves Florida for the great neighborhood of Harlem, where he eventually enrolls himself in numerous struggles for civil rights, has his family fall apart, and then finds his peace with God. The final story is that of Robert Foster, who leaves Louisiana to become a doctor in 1953 and ends up as Ray Charles’ personal physician, and starts living the life of his dreams.

As you can tell, this cross-country race across time covers much of the period from 1915 to 1970, and while it doesn’t indulge much in general facts and statistics, it aims to show what the times looked like from the perspective of someone who lived during them. To be frank, I loved this approach to the topic, especially considering that if I wanted a history lesson, I would have bought a history book. 

The author does a marvelous job at allowing you to experience not only what the characters think and feel, but also the environment surrounding them. Wilkerson is simply amazing at breathing life into a world we will probably never see anymore and creating drama, which is an especially impressive achievement considering that she manages remain historically-accurate throughout all three stories.

All in all, those who are interested in discovering from a first-hand perspective what life could have been like for you during the lost and somewhat forgotten wave of immigration of 1915 to 1970, then I definitely recommend you give The Warmth of Other Suns a read.

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Isabel Wilkerson Personal site Isabel Wilkerson is a Pulitzer-winning American journalist and author of numerous essays, lectures and columns, as well as a single book, The Warmth of Other Suns, an effort which earned her the National Book Critics Circle Award as well as the Anisfield-Wolf Award, without forgetting the Mark Lynton History and Sidney Hillman Book Prizes.