The subtitle of this book — The Epic Story of America's Great Migration — is somewhat misleading. While the book is over 600 pages, its focus on the stories of three individuals makes it more intimate than epic. And it's better that way.
The Great Migration is the half-century period during which a huge percentage of black Americans moved from the South to the North and West. The migration changed the face of the country in numerous ways. Wilkerson uses the life stories of three people from different parts of the South to illustrate her general historical and sociological points. She is a journalist, but she describes her characters as well as most novelists. This approach makes her arguments more vividly than an academic approach would have. I was especially struck by the story of Robert Foster driving across the Southwest to Los Angeles. (Foster is the most sharply drawn character.)
On the down side, the book was rather disorganized and repeatedly repeated itself. I'm afraid I'll never be able to track down the place where she made that interesting point about how migrants followed the major train lines, so that you know where a person came from by where they ended up. Or how the end of segregation led to vibrant black communities becoming ghettos.
Definitely recommended.
The Great Migration is the half-century period during which a huge percentage of black Americans moved from the South to the North and West. The migration changed the face of the country in numerous ways. Wilkerson uses the life stories of three people from different parts of the South to illustrate her general historical and sociological points. She is a journalist, but she describes her characters as well as most novelists. This approach makes her arguments more vividly than an academic approach would have. I was especially struck by the story of Robert Foster driving across the Southwest to Los Angeles. (Foster is the most sharply drawn character.)
On the down side, the book was rather disorganized and repeatedly repeated itself. I'm afraid I'll never be able to track down the place where she made that interesting point about how migrants followed the major train lines, so that you know where a person came from by where they ended up. Or how the end of segregation led to vibrant black communities becoming ghettos.
Definitely recommended.
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