There is no doubt that this is an enormously impressive book, exhaustively researched, with attention paid to every single detail. I was totally unfamiliar with the concept of the Great Migration before reading this, but Wilkerson presents a beautifully constructed argument for and history of the importance of this movement and the impact that it has had not only on Black history in America, but on the country's current trajectory.

There was, however, one aspect of her writing that bothered me. I understand that there is a lot of detail to pack in here, and that some repetition might be beneficial for the reader, especially if you were to consume this over a much longer period than I did. But there was a lot of information — relationships, statistics, back story — that was repeated over and over again throughout the course of the book, some instances within even a few pages of each other. Again, I can appreciate the benefits of that to an extent, but at a certain point, it just starts to feel a little condescending. I mean, Wilkerson must have reintroduced Eustis's long-term sheriff in his ten-gallon hat close to 10 times. In a more standard academic text, where readers are consuming research in smaller chunks rather than the book as a whole, that might make more sense, but the narrative structure that Wilkerson clearly worked so hard to produce doesn't necessarily lend itself to that. Honestly, I think this could have been trimmed by at least 20 pages or so if some of that repetition had been cut out.

But again, this was overall minor in terms of Wilkerson's incredible storytelling abilities and the sheer force of will that must have gone into researching this book. She takes this long, complex, often brutal history and really transforms it into a wonderfully readable story of American resilience and determination.

You will realize how much you don’t know and were not taught of the Great Migration when you read this book. Isabel Wilkerson provides a comprehensive view on how the Great Migration and the six million Black people that fled the South to the North over ~65 years defines much of the societal make-up and trends of the 20th Century. The first half is hard to read but a triumph in narrative. The second half loses some drive and starts becoming repetitive. When it’s such a long book, it would’ve helped to cut the repetitive parts and make it more concise. But overall, this is such a triumph of a misunderstood yet highly influential era in American history. 

Powerful & poignant. I learned so much.
I felt personally involved in Ida Mae, George, and Robert's lives

This is a fantastic and engaging book about America's Great Migration in the 1900s as Black Americans left the Jim Crow South for new lives and better opportunities in the North. We follow three people's real stories - Ida Mae, George and Robert from three different Southern locations as they move themselves and their families and how their lives turn out in the North but they never lose their connection to the South.

I listened to this on audiobook and while it was a long listen, I throughly enjoyed it. As a non-American reader, I enjoyed learning more about this time in American history and this isn't something I had known about before though obviously we learn about the American Civil War and the US Civil Rights Movement in Irish education, this is a topic that is connected to these but its own story entirely. I found it interesting to see how the North wasn't automatically better for the migrants - while they escaped the suffocating Jim Crow of the South, they still faced and dealt with a lot of racial discrimination and divide in different ways in the North - and Northern cities such as Chicago and New York were forever changed after his migration as well in socio-economic and city division ways as well which was fascinating. It was also amazing to hear of some of the famous people who would never have been able to reach the heights they did if their parents or family members hadn't chosen to migrant to the North where they had the opportunities the did.

The care and detail put into the research for this book must have been immense and really commend the author for doing a stellar job - from the sounds of it, this book took a long time to research and write as she sat and talked to Ida Mae, George and Robert in the later years of their lives to understand their story and experiences better.

Highly recommend this!