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Hidden Figures

The Untold Story of the African American Women Who Helped Win the Space Race

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Hidden Figures

By: Margot Lee Shetterly
Narrated by: Robin Miles
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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.

 Aeronautics & Astronautics Americas Astronomy & Space Science Black & African American Professionals & Academics Science Science & Technology Social Sciences United States Women Inspiring Thought-Provoking Civil rights Social justice
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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
All stars
Most relevant
A great story about some amazing women which is incredibly dully told. The writer rarely brings these women's stories to life. The narrator was very poor too.

Great story, badly written

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This is an important story in the history of emancipation. The movie is not entirely accurate, but it does help keep you involved during the slow parts of the book. Knowing what is coming does not detract from learning about the history, only makes you more curious to find out how it happened and what motivated these amazing women.

Please see the movie first

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I absolutely adore this book , it is a wonderful example to all the women of the world that no matter what your skin colour, family background or age you can achieve whatever you want in this world if you just work hard enough and believe. Us girls are amazing !

A wonderful example to the young women of this world

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I saw the film of this name a few years ago when it came out and thoroughly enjoyed it so thought I would like to know more.

There is obviously a lot more detail in this book than in the film and the film does take some artistic licence with time lines etc.


This is really great listen, and it gets the point across of the inequality that people of colour faced then, (they still do but that is another book) by just stating facts, the inequality of pay, of treatment. The quiet oppression that took place and the incredibly dignified way that these women overcame it.

I would highly recommend this book.

Really enjoyable and educational

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A beautifully written work which is a history of Black women's struggle for equality, the role they played in the history of aeronautical engineering and the space race and how they advanced the cause of all women in engineering. A huge debt is owed to them by every girl and women studying and/working in STEM. Sophia Chidgey-Hallan

An window into Black women's history

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