The phenomenal true story of the black female mathematicians at NASA whose calculations helped fuel some of America’s greatest achievements in space. Soon to be 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 mathematicians known as “human computers” used pencils, slide rules, and adding machines to calculate the numbers that would launch rockets and astronauts into space.
Among these problem solvers were a group of exceptionally talented African American women, some of the brightest minds of their generation. Originally relegated to teaching math in the South’s segregated public schools, they were called into service during the labor shortages of World War II, when America’s aeronautics industry was in dire need of anyone who had the right stuff. Suddenly these overlooked math whizzes had shots at jobs worthy of their skills, and they answered Uncle Sam’s call, moving to Hampton, Virginia, and the fascinating, high-energy world of the Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory.
Even as Virginia’s Jim Crow laws required them to be segregated from their white counterparts, the women of Langley’s all-black West Computing group helped America achieve one of the things it desired most: a decisive victory over the Soviet Union in the Cold War and complete domination of the heavens.
Starting in World War II and moving through to the Cold War, the civil rights movement, and the space race, Hidden Figures follows the interwoven accounts of Dorothy Vaughan, Mary Jackson, Katherine Johnson, and Christine Darden, four African American women who participated in some of NASA’s greatest successes. It chronicles their careers over nearly three decades as they faced challenges, forged alliances, and used their intellects to change their own lives – and their country’s future.
Read this and enjoy learning some very important things. I only read this because it was the choice of my book group, but I’m really glad that I did. It’s well written and a really good read. I learned a lot about the space program and what women have had to deal with in the work force. But this book dealt particularly well with how black society dealt with segregation and all the attendant hardships and how it fought against them. Although I thought I knew about segregation this author really opened my eyes to its day to day reality. This is…
Masterful, well-written, and leaves you wanting more! Hidden Figures has garnered much attention for being the heretofore forgotten story of the African-American women who helped build NASA (or to be more exact, the NASA field center at Langley). The media has boiled the tale of these women down to the oft-used cliche “heroes”; Shetterley’s narrative digs beyond that.Â
This is a great history book, not historical fiction Much hullabaloo has appeared in social media based on the release of the preview for the movie based on this book. The movie will be historical fiction, the book is not. The book is as much about the advances and science done at NACA and NASA as it is about the black women who were an integral part of this piece of history. It is an easy reading book and most readers will find it an interesting read as well.Â