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Hidden figures : the American dream and the untold story of the Black women mathematicians who helped win the space race / Margot Lee Shetterly.
LIBRA - Athenaeum of Philadelphia Circulating QA27.5 .L44 2016
Available from offsite location
- Format:
- Book
- Author/Creator:
- Shetterly, Margot Lee, author.
- Language:
- English
- Subjects (All):
- United States. National Aeronautics and Space Administration--Officials and employees--Biography.
- United States.
- United States. National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
- Women mathematicians--United States--Biography.
- Women mathematicians.
- African American women--Biography.
- African American women.
- African American mathematicians--Biography.
- African American mathematicians.
- Space race.
- Employees.
- Genre:
- Biographies.
- Physical Description:
- xviii, 346 pages ; 24 cm
- Edition:
- First edition.
- Other Title:
- American dream and the untold story of the Black women mathematicians who helped win the space race
- Place of Publication:
- New York, NY : William Morrow, [2016]
- System Details:
- text file
- Summary:
- "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 a shot 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"--Publisher's description.
- Contents:
- A door opens
- Mobilization
- Past is prologue
- The double V
- Manifest destiny
- War birds
- The duration
- Those who move forward
- Breaking barriers
- Home by the sea
- The area rule
- Serendipity
- Turbulence
- Angle of attack
- Young, gifted, and black
- What a difference a day makes
- Outer space
- With all deliberate speed
- Model behavior
- Degrees of freedom
- Out of the past, the future
- America is for everybody
- To boldly go.
- Notes:
- Includes bibliographical references (pages 319-328) and index.
- New York Times Best Seller List.
- Coretta Scott King Book Awards - Illustrator, Honor, 2019
- National Association for the Advancement of Colored People Image Awards Outstanding Literary Work - Nonfiction, Winner, 2017
- Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards - Nonfiction, Winner, 2017
- Black Caucus of the American Library Association Literary Awards - Nonfiction , Winner, 2017
- Local Notes:
- Athenaeum copy: Schneidman Fund bookplate.
- ISBN:
- 9780062363596
- 006236359X
- 9780062363602
- 0062363603
- OCLC:
- 950004289
- Publisher Number:
- 40026553076
- 9780062363596 52799
- Online:
- Book website
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