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Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win the Space Race
by
Margot Lee Shetterly (Goodreads Author)
The phenomenal true story of the black female mathematicians at NASA whose calculations helped fuel some of America's greatest achievements in space. Now a major motion picture starring Taraji P. Henson, Octavia Spencer, Janelle Monae, Kirsten Dunst, and Kevin Costner.
Before John Glenn orbited the Earth or Neil Armstrong walked on the moon, a group of dedicated female math ...more
Before John Glenn orbited the Earth or Neil Armstrong walked on the moon, a group of dedicated female math ...more
Paperback, 349 pages
Published
December 6th 2016
by William Morrow Paperbacks
(first published September 6th 2016)
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(showing 1-30)
I want EVERYBODY to read this. It's a story you need to hear. It will move you, it will surprise you, it will frustrate you and it will inspire you. No matter your gender, ethnicity, race or creed, you need this in your life.
Man I really really wanted to like this book. I enjoy nonfiction and I loved the subject matter the author went after. However, this was just so dry. It felt very clinical as opposed to experiencing life with these women. Also some of the facts that the author was trying to get across were so repeated their value lost meaning. Bummer because it could have been SOOO good.
The book was as amazing as the movie. I had occasion to meet the author who is the niece of one of these remarkable women. It is unbelievable that we did not know about the contributions of these women until now. This shows how history and historians are extremely selective and do not stray from the pre-established political narrative. I'm sure there are countless other untold stories about women and minorities. Thanks to Margot Shetterly for introducing us to these (s)heroes of rocket science(!
...more
Hidden Figures tells the stories of Dorothy Vaughan, Mary Jackson, Katherine Johnson, and Christine Darden, four African-American women who blazed the trail for others to follow in the fields of mathematics and engineering at NASA.
NASA, originally known as NACA (National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics) began hiring women during WWII as female computers. These women essentially did the work of mathematicians but were labeled as subprofessionals in order to be paid less. In 1943 there was a p ...more
NASA, originally known as NACA (National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics) began hiring women during WWII as female computers. These women essentially did the work of mathematicians but were labeled as subprofessionals in order to be paid less. In 1943 there was a p ...more
Wow , Wow , Wow , Wow , Wow , Wow Wow , Wow , Wow , Wow , Wow , Wow
THIS BOOK HOLY SHIT * AMAZING *
THIS BOOK HOLY SHIT * AMAZING *
“Even as a professional in an integrated world, I had been the only black woman in enough drawing rooms and boardrooms to have an inkling of the chutzpah it took for an African American woman in a segregated southern workplace to tell her bosses she was sure her calculations would put a man on the Moon.”
I don't even read nonfiction if it doesn't involve making-of Harry Potter books (which I still consider fiction in a way). So this was a good change for once.
I'm not sure when I first heard of th ...more
I don't even read nonfiction if it doesn't involve making-of Harry Potter books (which I still consider fiction in a way). So this was a good change for once.
I'm not sure when I first heard of th ...more
Hidden Figures by Margot Lee Shetterly is a 2016 William Morrow publication.
America is for Everybody!!
It wouldn’t have mattered when or where I happened along this book, I would have loved it!!
But, with so many core values at stake in our immediate future, with the contributions of the best and the brightest on the line, this story reminds us of why we need maths and science, and how much we can accomplish if we all work together as people, with a common goal in mind.
The work of Dorothy Vau ...more
America is for Everybody!!
It wouldn’t have mattered when or where I happened along this book, I would have loved it!!
But, with so many core values at stake in our immediate future, with the contributions of the best and the brightest on the line, this story reminds us of why we need maths and science, and how much we can accomplish if we all work together as people, with a common goal in mind.
The work of Dorothy Vau ...more
This was such an extraordinary, exhilarating and important story to tell, but the writing was so dry, repetitive and full of platitudes that it began to dull the edges of this sharp tale. I really hope that the author was able to get through some revisions to work out some of the weaknesses in the writing because the story is so important -- it's about African-American women in the South who, because of the war, are temporarily able to secure jobs as 'human computers' at NACA -- which later beco
...more
"In July 1969, a hundred or so black women crowded into a room, their attention commanded by the sounds and grainy images issuing forth from a small black-and-white television. The flickering light of the TV illuminated the women’s faces, the history of their country written in the great diversity of their features and hair and skin color, which ranged from near-ivory to almost-ebony, hues of beige and coffee and cocoa and topaz filling in between. Some of the women were approaching their golden
...more
I first heard of Katherine Johnson just a few months ago, when I was watching a Sci-Fi time travel series on television. “Timeless” was a lot of hokum, but fun, and interestingly, many of the historical figures in the stories were real, and portrayed as authentically as they could. So when I became aware of this particular black woman, a high-flying mathematician with the ability to think outside the box – and learned that she had played a great part in the space race – I investigated further.
To ...more
To ...more
How far we have come in the last 100 years! Both scientifically and as people. I know in many ways we still have a long way to go, but this book shows how much has changed for the better through the persistance of those unlikely to be given a chance.
Less than 80 years ago, in many places, people of different colors still couldn't share bathrooms, tables in cafeterias, etc. Women were only given base level positions and pay because that was just how it was. Ask a man leading a department why the ...more
Less than 80 years ago, in many places, people of different colors still couldn't share bathrooms, tables in cafeterias, etc. Women were only given base level positions and pay because that was just how it was. Ask a man leading a department why the ...more
My original "review" was this - two flippant little sentences to serve as a placeholder for an eventual "real" review:
Glad that's over. Not bad but strangely boring.(In the interim 8 people "liked" that review IDK why?) Too much time has passed for me to write something detailed, but I just want to explain that though the book didn't impress me the women depicted are important and it will makes a great movie that I'm going to see soon. But maybe the execution of the story/ies just wasn't to my ...more
From my youth, I have always been interested in the space race. So all the way through reading "Hidden Figures", I was asking myself why haven't I ever heard about the African American Women Scientist involved in the US Space Program from it's earliest days!
Margot Lee Shetterly does a great job of telling their story. For me one of the most telling statements she makes is "as a child, I grew up knowing so many Black people in Science, Math, and Engineering that I thought that was just what Blac ...more
Margot Lee Shetterly does a great job of telling their story. For me one of the most telling statements she makes is "as a child, I grew up knowing so many Black people in Science, Math, and Engineering that I thought that was just what Blac ...more
Short of just gushing about the brainy women featured in this engaging book, I'll say that I wish I could have known some of these women. Coming from a STEM background myself, I found it fascinating to hear about the personal and the professional lives of the women who worked at NACA (before it was known as NASA). Three of these women are followed in detail: Dorothy Vaughan, Mary Jackson and Katherine Johnson. They, and all the other West Computers, worked unbelievably hard and with often flawle
...more
A very well researched book on a fascinating topic very few of us knew about until now. Glad the author brought to light these extraordinarily talented “human computers”. Be forewarned: this book has lots historical and technical information and not a lot of personal stories. Look forward to the movie!
Apr 09, 2017
Britany
rated it
did not like it
·
review of another edition
Recommended to Britany by:
Diane Fisher
This book was everything I thought it would be, which unfortunately is why I didn't want to read it. So many friends told me that it wasn't what I thought, and one friend literally pushed her copy into my hands, and guess what, my fellow book nerds?? I should've stuck with my gut.
Non-Fiction with a lacking narrative makes for tough reading. Add in subject matters that do not appeal to me: Space, Science, and Math. Finally, my biggest non-fiction pet peeve: no chronological sense whatsoever. Why ...more
Non-Fiction with a lacking narrative makes for tough reading. Add in subject matters that do not appeal to me: Space, Science, and Math. Finally, my biggest non-fiction pet peeve: no chronological sense whatsoever. Why ...more
No, but seriously, did you expect anything less of a rating from me? This book is kickass. It is literally everything I have wanted in a science history book for a while.
Hidden Figures details the lives and achievements of the Black women who worked first as computers, then as mathematicians and engineers, for NACA (the National Advisory Committee of Aeronautics) and its successor, NASA. Margot Lee Shetterly pulls back the curtain on an aspect of science history that has remained obscured and ne ...more
Hidden Figures details the lives and achievements of the Black women who worked first as computers, then as mathematicians and engineers, for NACA (the National Advisory Committee of Aeronautics) and its successor, NASA. Margot Lee Shetterly pulls back the curtain on an aspect of science history that has remained obscured and ne ...more
This is my Book Of the Month- February-March 2017, with GR group- The Reading For Pleasure Book Club, Category: Non-Fiction Group Read.
This is one of the most celebrated books of this time and I had very high expectations from this book. I wanted to read this before watching the movie.
Now, the thing is the movie trailer somehow makes it come off as a motivational story with humorous undertones but in fact the book has absolutely NO humor in it!! And I say this because I found the writing very v ...more
This is one of the most celebrated books of this time and I had very high expectations from this book. I wanted to read this before watching the movie.
Now, the thing is the movie trailer somehow makes it come off as a motivational story with humorous undertones but in fact the book has absolutely NO humor in it!! And I say this because I found the writing very v ...more
Wow. Just wow. I saw this movie two weeks ago and was blown away by it. Reading the book just gave me even more details about the African American women who came out as human computers (I had no idea that was where the word computers came from, they computed so were seen as computers) and helped shaped the United States space program.
Shetterly has historian disease (yeah I use to suffer from this as well, historians unite!) so the flow was off a few times. And there are details sprinkled in some ...more
Shetterly has historian disease (yeah I use to suffer from this as well, historians unite!) so the flow was off a few times. And there are details sprinkled in some ...more
Hidden Figures by Margot Lee Shetterly should just be a glowing ball of jaw dropping greatness heavily slathered in awesome sauce. Something Marsellus Wallace would keep locked up in a secure briefcase. The subject: black female mathematician’s hidden but tremendously influential impact on the United States aeronautic superiority during the second World War as well as helping win the Space Race seems compelling, important, exciting, and timely. The book is historical so I can feel like a respons
...more
There is so much history that we don't know about. Some of it is hinted at in textbooks - conversations that may have taken place in closed rooms, people who may have helped behind the scenes. These are things we can imagine not knowing. But that there was a group of African-American women that worked as mathematicians at NASA, plotting our course to the stars? It's an unknown unknown - in media depictions I don't think I've seen any people of color at all.
All too often women and people of color ...more
All too often women and people of color ...more
Dec 02, 2016
Bettie☯
rated it
it was amazing
Recommended to Bettie☯ by:
Janelle Monáe
Shelves:
sciences,
teh-brillianz,
nonfiction,
racism,
spaaaaaace,
published-2016,
winter-20162017,
tbr-busting-2017
Janelle Monáe, Margot Lee Shetterly, and Melissa Harris-Perry on the Importance of Portraying Nuanced Black Female Characters
Just WOW, and on so many levels of brilliance. You can take La La Land and give it away to any charity shop, maybe iron it out a bit first. (the dancing was less than a week three Strictly level)
So, Oscar-wise:
6* Hidden Figures
2* La La Land
TW Florence Foster Jenkins
TW Fences
Dec 28, 2016
Didi
rated it
really liked it
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
American history
This is an excellent nonfiction novel to learn about the African-American women who largely contributed to America's race to space. What I especially appreciated was the way Shetterley always grounded the story in history. The reader is always reminded of what else is going on in the world as well as other American historical events. Hidden Figures is a must read.
Is the story of a handful of remarkable black women who helped move American aerospace technology forward. But their stories aren’t isolated achievements and author Margot Lee Shetterly places us in a larger historical context and intertwines these stories to show how America began to define itself as well.
World War 2 opened the doors to women fulfilling new roles made available as the men went off to war. Dorothy Vaughan is there to help build better planes to fight the war overseas. When Russ ...more
World War 2 opened the doors to women fulfilling new roles made available as the men went off to war. Dorothy Vaughan is there to help build better planes to fight the war overseas. When Russ ...more
I liked this book very much. It covers an important time in history when things were changing fast and for the better. It is a product of thorough research and is full of events and anecdotes that make us re-live the tough times black women had to endure during 50s and 60s. The efforts of many courageous people that paved the road of social freedom for women and black people are amazing. It is also very interesting to read about this era; since the kids of today are born with an ipad; but before
...more
Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win the Space Race by Margot Lee Shetterly is a book not only about strong women but more. It is a book about society, struggles, overcoming prejudices, spirit, strong will, and brains. This is a history lesson for all of us not to repeat mistakes. This book follows a handful of smart and tough women as they work their way through a society rigged against them in every way until they get a small
...more
This is the well researched non-fictional story of the black females whose work helped put the astronauts in space. Long before the " space race" which began when the Russian's launched Sputnik, black women were being recruited to help fuel the aeronautic industry needs of World War II here at home. This book tells about the lives of 4 of them who grasped the opportunity though fraught with the hardships of prejudice and became first , "computers" (when that was a job done by people not machines
...more
I was beyond excited to read this book when I first heard about it, but when I found out there's a movie version coming out in January...well, is it too cheesy to say my interest rocketed into outer space?
Seriously, watch this trailer and tell me it doesn't get you all kinds of excited!
Margot Lee Shetterly has done fabulous work unearthing the stories of the African-American women engineers and mathematicians who played pivotal roles at NASA from World War II on through the space race of the 19 ...more
Seriously, watch this trailer and tell me it doesn't get you all kinds of excited!
Margot Lee Shetterly has done fabulous work unearthing the stories of the African-American women engineers and mathematicians who played pivotal roles at NASA from World War II on through the space race of the 19 ...more
May 04, 2017
Book Riot Community
added it
I committed a book nerd faux pas by going to see the movie Hidden Figures before actually reading the book. As with almost all adaptations, getting to the original has definitely been worth it. Margot Lee Shetterly’s book is much broader than the movie, and does more to put the work of the black female mathematicians and engineers in the context of their time and place. It’s a wide-ranging read that I’ve enjoyed making my way through this month.
— Kim Ukura
from The Best Books We Read In February ...more
— Kim Ukura
from The Best Books We Read In February ...more
This was very inspirational, and I was greatly moved by the story of these women's contributions. Part of me wants to march out and get a mathematics degree and level up, because these women were by far smarter, braver, and harder working than I am!
I will lay the only fault of this book at the publisher's feet and not the author's: It should have been longer. Clearly, by the state of the epilogue, Shetterly had to cut entire portions of this history and other women's roles, and there was no reas ...more
I will lay the only fault of this book at the publisher's feet and not the author's: It should have been longer. Clearly, by the state of the epilogue, Shetterly had to cut entire portions of this history and other women's roles, and there was no reas ...more
| topics | posts | views | last activity | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Read the Book and See the Movie | 2 | 12 | Jun 26, 2017 11:20AM | |
| THE HIDDEN FIGURES BEHIND THE SPACE RACE | 3 | 23 | Jun 19, 2017 09:12PM | |
| Read Women: Hidden Figures by Margot Lee Shetterly | 10 | 40 | Jun 19, 2017 08:28PM | |
| Bookwarts Club of...: June 2017 | 1 | 6 | May 29, 2017 04:20PM | |
| Around the Year i...: Hidden Figures, by Margot Lee Shetterly | 7 | 31 | May 20, 2017 09:22PM |
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“Women, on the other hand, had to wield their intellects like a scythe, hacking away against the stubborn underbrush of low expectations.”
—
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“Katherine Johnson knew: once you took the first step, anything was possible.”
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