greatexpectations77's review against another edition
informative
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced
4.0
This story is extremely interesting, but perhaps the storytelling could have been a hair more engaging. I did especially like that the locations in the book were very familiar to me, which helped me connect with it a little bit more. I would love to see the movie, now that I have the whole story.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexism, Racism, and Classism
Moderate: Mental illness, Bullying, and Misogyny
Minor: Alcohol, Death, Alcoholism, and Grief
whenweplay1950's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
slow-paced
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Misogyny, Sexism, and Racism
directorpurry's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
medium-paced
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Antisemitism, Misogyny, Racial slurs, and Racism
Moderate: Death and Fire/Fire injury
Minor: War and Death of parent
mandi4886's review
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racism and Sexism
Minor: Death, Racial slurs, Misogyny, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Terminal illness, Mental illness, and Cancer
puttingwingsonwords's review against another edition
informative
slow-paced
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Misogyny, Racism, and Sexism
nmcannon's review against another edition
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
5.0
Like many others, I first heard of Hidden Figures through the movie adaptation, and immediately got stars in my eyes from Taraji P. Henson’s, Octavia Spencer’s, and Janelle Monáe’s stellar performances. I tracked down a copy of the book at my local bookstore and ended up, oddly enough, listening to the audiobook from the library because I lent a family member my physical copy.
This book was an education. Starting in the USA’s total war society of the 1940s, Shetterly guides the reader and tracks Black women’s mathematical and engineering contributions through the end of the 1960s and the moon landing. The effect is an eye-opening saga of how race affected the American job landscape in this section of the twentieth century. During WWII, the air was a battlefield all its own, and those with the best planes won more often. All the white men went to war, and there simply weren’t enough mathematicians at home to crunch the numbers and design the best planes. White women were brought in, and the Air Force still needed more workers. At the same time, all over the country, Black woman mathematicians were primed for graduate work but found themselves barred from post-grad education by racism—so they applied to Langley and JPL and got the job because even the most stubborn racist couldn’t say no to such ridiculously over-qualified applicants. These women were paid juuuuuust enough to bring Black families into the middle class. Soon the Black community recognized “computer” as a highly valuable, respectable position, which led more Black women and men to the STEM fields. As the century advanced, these women, and the husbands who followed, broke down segregation by sheer force of will and merit. Racism has never made sense, and these logical wonders pointed out the inconsistencies until white people were forced to yield.
Hidden Figures had a lot of revelations, but the Cold War section stuck with me. Shetterly brought home the point that racism is a distraction that holds back a country and its ideals. All the energy being put towards segregation, racism, and anti-Blackness could be directed towards spreading democracy and justice. During the Cold War, the United States went to enormous (and harmful) lengths to spread its brand of democracy. Shetterly describes visits from African diplomats and how these visits were meant to encourage the envoys to bring USA democracy to their new nations. However, these visits backfired—the diplomats were horrified at how the people who looked like them were treated. When the diplomats returned to their home nations, they carried their tales of micro-aggressions, segregation, and racial violence, and nobody wanted anything more to do with the United States. The fact that racism is pointless and keeps a nation from its full potential isn’t news to me, by any means. Yet I haven’t seen it conveyed on such an international scale before Shetterly’s work.
The other big point of Shetterly’s that will haunt me is about historians. Shetterly notes that historians often either play down the contributions of Black women or they make a Black woman stand alone. It’s total erasure—or erasure of everyone except one remarkable individual. Historians only discuss Katherine Johnson, or Dorothy Vaughan, or Mary Jackson—but make no mention of the communities who supported them, or their Black women co-workers and subordinates. Though Shetterly did pick a few trend-setting or record-breaking individuals to follow closely, from the beginning she notes that there was always more, and even close to the book’s publication she was digging up more names and histories.
Shetterly’s writing style is engaging, and the topic engrossing. Hidden Figures isn’t a novel or a biography, but more coverage of a historical phenomenon, so do come prepared for a lot of names and dates. Overall, Shetterly’s work is up there with David McCullough’s The Greater Journey for me. Can’t wait to see what she researches next.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racism and Misogyny
While the book doesn't go into graphic details about hate crime or violent atrocities, it discusses the systematic and structural racism, misogyny, and misogynoir the women faced.rosequarterdrifting's review against another edition
informative
slow-paced
1.5
kind of a mix of girlboss and black capitalism
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racism
Moderate: Ableism, Forced institutionalization, Misogyny, Racial slurs, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis
Minor: Fatphobia
brookey8888's review against another edition
informative
inspiring
slow-paced
2.5
This honestly was not what I was expecting. If I didn’t listen to the audio book I would have really struggled to finish this. I just felt like we didn’t get to know these women at all. Like it just felt like it was just a history lesson about that time with science thrown in. I just wish I got to learn more about their lives and personality because they are such important women.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Mental illness, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Sexism
margueritestjust's review against another edition
informative
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced
5.0
This book is fascinating because it covers such a large chunk of history. Rather than delivering a laser-focused approach on the lives of the women that she covers, Shetterly also brings life to the context of the world around them. The accomplishments of Dorothy Vaughn, Katherine G. Johnson, Mary Jackson, and Christine Darden, are incredible.
It's fascinating to also see how it translated to the screen, as the movie largely centered on Katherine Johnson's work on John Glenn's orbital spaceflight (although it also certainly notes Mary Jackson attending classes to become one of the first Black female engineers at NASA and Dorothy Vaughn's work to become an early computer programmer), whereas this book spans decades. (For context, John Glenn's orbital flight and Katherine Johnson's work on it is covered within the last 60 pages or so of the book.) As a consequence, a lot of their earlier work (particularly during World War II and post-war America) is expanded upon in the book, and Shetterly also covers NASA's beginnings as NACA (the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, which began during World War I) and covers how the Black civil rights movement had a major impact on NACA/NASA as a whole.
A. Phillip Randolph (who I am fascinated by and definitely want to learn more about) who was a lifelong advocate for civil rights led a push to ban discrimination in the defense industries (which was carried out during World War II), and Black journalists and advocates argued for the integration of schools during the height of the Space Race, capitalizing on the American fear of Soviet cosmological supremacy to argue that segregation could be preventing Black mathematicians and engineers from helping the US win against the Soviets. It does away with the disjointed history that we sometimes think of and shows how much historical events and movements impacted each other.
There's obviously a great deal of discussion about the racism and sexism against the time, but there's also mentions of the Red Scare and the anti-semitism of the period, and these are all examined as part of the context of this book. For only 265 pages, Shetterly packs as much in as she can, and it's a fascinating read that anyone and everyone should read. I'd especially recommend it to history nerds, space nerds (hello fellow space nerds!), and anyone looking to read about Black excellence. It's a dense read, but incredibly worthwhile.
It's fascinating to also see how it translated to the screen, as the movie largely centered on Katherine Johnson's work on John Glenn's orbital spaceflight (although it also certainly notes Mary Jackson attending classes to become one of the first Black female engineers at NASA and Dorothy Vaughn's work to become an early computer programmer), whereas this book spans decades. (For context, John Glenn's orbital flight and Katherine Johnson's work on it is covered within the last 60 pages or so of the book.) As a consequence, a lot of their earlier work (particularly during World War II and post-war America) is expanded upon in the book, and Shetterly also covers NASA's beginnings as NACA (the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, which began during World War I) and covers how the Black civil rights movement had a major impact on NACA/NASA as a whole.
A. Phillip Randolph (who I am fascinated by and definitely want to learn more about) who was a lifelong advocate for civil rights led a push to ban discrimination in the defense industries (which was carried out during World War II), and Black journalists and advocates argued for the integration of schools during the height of the Space Race, capitalizing on the American fear of Soviet cosmological supremacy to argue that segregation could be preventing Black mathematicians and engineers from helping the US win against the Soviets. It does away with the disjointed history that we sometimes think of and shows how much historical events and movements impacted each other.
There's obviously a great deal of discussion about the racism and sexism against the time, but there's also mentions of the Red Scare and the anti-semitism of the period, and these are all examined as part of the context of this book. For only 265 pages, Shetterly packs as much in as she can, and it's a fascinating read that anyone and everyone should read. I'd especially recommend it to history nerds, space nerds (hello fellow space nerds!), and anyone looking to read about Black excellence. It's a dense read, but incredibly worthwhile.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Racism, Sexism, and Misogyny
Minor: Police brutality and Antisemitism
junefish's review against another edition
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racism and Misogyny
Minor: Cancer, Death, and Terminal illness