Hidden Figures
4
(2.7K)
Margot Lee Shetterly
Before John Glenn orbited the Earth or Neil Armstrong walked on the moon, a group of professionals worked as "Human Computers," calculating the flight paths that would enable these historic achievements. Among these were a coterie of bright, talented African-American women. Segregated from their white counterparts by Jim Crow laws, these "colored computers," as they were known, used slide rules, adding machines, and pencil and paper to support America's fledgling aeronautics industry, and helped write the equations that would launch rockets, and astronauts, into space. Drawing on the oral histories of scores of these "computers," personal recollections, interviews with NASA executives and engineers, archival documents, correspondence, and reporting from the era, Hidden Figures recalls America's greatest adventure and NASA's groundbreaking successes through the experiences of five spunky, courageous, intelligent, determined, and patriotic women: Dorothy Vaughan, Mary Jackson, Katherine Johnson, Christine Darden, and Gloria Champine. Moving from World War II through NASA's golden age, touching on the civil rights era, the Space Race, the Cold War, and the women's rights movement, Hidden Figures interweaves a history of scientific achievement and technological innovation with the intimate stories of five women whose work forever changed the world -- and whose lives show how out of one of America's most painful histories came one of its proudest moments.
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More Details:
Author
Margot Lee Shetterly
Pages
231
Publisher
HarperCollins Publishers
Published Date
2016
ISBN
0606396233 9780606396233
Community ReviewsSee all
"Honestly, I think the movie is better. The book contains a lot more historical and scientific context and details, which is good if you're doing an in-depth study, but it makes for a really slow read. I caught my mind wandering off on multiple occasions. Of course, it's a wonderful story and the movie would never have been possible without the book."
"This book was really interesting and fun to read! Definitely recommend!"
V P
Vega Peace
"The narrative was cluttered with too much technical and unnecessary information that shrouded the arc of an important and compelling story."
E B
Emily Berigan
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