author: Isabel Wilkerson
name: Elaine
average rating: 4.32
book published: 2010
rating: 5
read at: 2013/11/11
date added: 2015/02/11
shelves: history, non-fiction, ebook
review:
A tremendous book, covering a vast scope and intimate detail at the same time. I’d been meaning to read this for a while, but then in a Metafilter thread about American Nations: A History of the Eleven Rival Regional Cultures of North America someone mentioned this book again and it happened to be available in ebook from the library. I’m so glad I finally read it! The sense of horror, the enormity of the migration, and the degree to which this movement shaped the 20th century: I hardly contemplated it. The author moves back and forth almost effortlessly between statistics, contemporary accounts, anecdotes, and the overarching stories of her three protagonists. (It reminds me a bit of Michener James A, who I read a lot of in high school/college.) So good, I teared up a bit at the end as Robert (migrated from Louisiana to Los Angeles) and George (Florida to NYC) got sick and passed away.