During the 1910s and 1970s, more than six million black people left the oppression of the South and moved to Western and Northern cities of the United States, an event identified as the Great Migration. . The Warmth of Other Suns is a powerful nonfiction book that illustrates this movement and introduces the world to one of the most significant events in African American history. Wilkerson conveys a sense of authenticity by articulating not only the stories of Ida Mae Brandon Gladney, George Swanson Starling, and Robert Joseph Pershing Foster, but also interweaving the stories of some 1,200 travelers who made a single decision that would later change the world. Wilkerson uses diverse disciplines, including sociology, psychology, and economics, to document and extol the distinct struggles but shared courage of three individuals and their families during the Great Migration. Likewise, the book's three main protagonists ultimately possess a common goal, to escape their unjust circumstances in their quest for the "warmth of other suns." Because of this, they abandon Jim Crow laws and the familiarity of their hometown to flee to a better life. In doing so, they all assume some level of risk in their decisions to rebel against the system. For example, Ida decides to embark on a precarious journey while she is at the start of a clandestine pregnancy. Many unpredictable events could have resulted from this judgment, including death. All migrants shared a tacit agreement that the rewards would far outweigh the dangers involved. Another connection between these three characters lies in their family ties. They highly respect their elders and consider the effects of the decisions they make middle of paper...... in the difficult period of the Great Migration. Students in particular can study this story and apply its principles in their other courses. Traditional character analysis would prove ineffective with this nonfiction because the characters in this book are real; they are our ancestors. Isabel Wilkerson used varied scopes and extensive research to communicate a sense of reality that brought the characters off the page. Although she focused on three in particular, each served as an example of someone who left the South in different decades and with different inspirations. This involuntary mass migration has radically changed and significantly improved society, our mentality and our economy. This profound and influential book reveals history and propels the reader into a world once very different from the one we know today..