Hidden Figures
The Untold Story of the African American Women Who Helped Win the Space Race
Failed to add items
Add to basket failed.
Add to wishlist failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Get 30 days of Standard free
Hidden Figures
Buy Now for £15.50
-
Narrated by:
-
Robin Miles
About this listen
The Top 10 Sunday Times Bestseller
NOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE
Oscar Nominated For Best Picture and Best Adapted Screenplay
Set amid the civil rights movement, the never-before-told true story of NASA’s African-American female mathematicians who played a crucial role in America’s space program.
Before 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, these ‘colored computers’ used pencil and paper to write the equations that would launch rockets, and astronauts, into space.
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 rich history of mankind’s greatest adventure with the intimate stories of five courageous women whose work forever changed the world.
Critic reviews
A TIME Magazine Top 10 Nonfiction Book of 2016
‘Much as Tom Wolfe did in ‘The Right Stuff’, Shetterly moves gracefully between the women’s lives and the broader sweep of history … Shetterly blends impressive research with an enormous amount of heart in telling these stories … Genuinely inspiring book’ Boston Globe
‘A fascinating and important document about the hitherto unknown impact of NASA’s endeavours’ BBC Sky at Night magazine
‘Shetterly’s highly recommended work offers up a crucial history that had previously and unforgivably been lost. We’d do well to put this book into the hands of young women who have long since been told that there’s no room for them at the scientific table’ Library Journal
‘Inspiring and enlightening’ Kirkus
‘Exploring the intimate relationships among blackness, womanhood, and 20th-century American technological development, Shetterly crafts a narrative that is crucial to understanding subsequent movements for civil rights’ Publishers Weekly
‘This an is incredibly powerful and complex story, and Shetterly has it down cold. The breadth of her well-documented research is immense, and her narrative compels on every level. The timing of this revelatory book could not be better, and book clubs will adore it’ Booklist
‘Meticulous … the depth and detail that are the book’s strength make it an effective, fact-based rudder with which would-be scientists and their allies can stabilise their flights of fancy’ Seattle Times
Great story, badly written
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Please see the movie first
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
If you've seen the film you'll know what it's about: the significant role black women played in the space programme despite the prejudice against both their skin colour and their gender. Prior to the publication of this book, and the release of the film, their contribution was largely forgotten or unknown, even by people like myself who are interested in space travel.
So what's wrong with the book?
To my mind, it's the structure that lets it down. We're just told facts, dry facts and lots of 'em. And so many names! The film focuses on three key women, but in the book the names of the main characters are lost among the minor players. There's some moving about in time too, so that it's quite hard to follow, especially as an audio book. It's not helped by the narrator's monotone, which makes the story fall quite flat at times.
If I'd been editor I'd have given chapter titles that clue us in to the purpose of the chapter. Let us know whether a chapter is focused on Katherine Johnson, or Mary Jackson, or relevant historical events, or technological developments at the time, or whatever. This could make the book much more accessible without having to dumb it down.
Don't get me wrong, it's not all dull and worthy. There are breathtaking moments, such as the appearance of Sputnik, John Glenn's precarious landing and so on. Also, the author is not in any way trying to make readers/listeners feel guilty for being white and/or male, and in fact there are heart-warming moments when friendships form that look beyond colour or gender.
At the end of the day, getting through this book is more of an effort than it should be, but is nevertheless worth the effort.
I will probably listen to the book again, or perhaps read a print version. I'll also watch the film again, even though I now know it takes a few liberties with history.
Unfocused
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
All empowering book
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
This is the true biogrpahy of how black women made US History. Working their talents to assist NACA and eventually NASA for the first space flight.
This was a book club choice for March 2022.
Their are some emotional subjects included in this book such as segregation, racism, sexism, world war 1 and 2, the cold War as well as death amongst other things.
The nature of this is to show the challenges that the black women of America overcame to do what they loved and were talented at. This is an important part of world history which I feel is often missed out when discussing with our younger generation. Particularly because most of the challenges faced mainly being sex and race were still challenges in the later stages of the 20th century. When they should never have been challenges!
However I found this book to be very slow going and not engaging in the slightest. I moved to audible in the hope this would rectify the problem but it didn't. I found it felt like this mainly due to how it read as a non fiction history text as opposed to a biography with the smooth flow of a novel.
Furthermore I found the book to be quite disjointed throughout for a few reasons. Firstly it skips back and forwards around time periods multiple times in a few minutes. Rather than being in chronological order. Secondly it is very name heavy. The author throws a lot of names in the book throughout but you never get to explore these people, their depth, lives and talent. Which makes it very difficult to follow and leaves you knowing no more about them than when you started. Thirdly you appear to glide over the surface of NACA and NASA. You know they are computers but know nothing more about their jobs, how racism and sexism alongside segregation made this harder. You simply know the bare minimum about the people and more about the places/ buildings. Whilst only hearing small segments about segregation mainly towards toileting and lunchtimes and not how this would effect their lives, mental health and jobs.
I really felt this book had the potential to be hugely influential and provide a huge knowledge base for those reading jt. Being able to explore the lives of these special people who made history. Unfortunately it fell short and almost like the author just wanted to show how much they had learnt in their research by throwing names in. Maybe if it had been used to tell a story it'd have done everything that it didn't do mentioned above.
Hidden Figures
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.