New Search Search History

Holdings Information

    Hidden figures : the American dream and the untold story of the Black women mathematicians who helped win the space race / Margot Lee Shetterly.

    • Title:Hidden figures : the American dream and the untold story of the Black women mathematicians who helped win the space race / Margot Lee Shetterly.
    •    
    • Variant Title:American dream and the untold story of the Black women mathematicians who helped win the space race
    • Author/Creator:Shetterly, Margot Lee.
    • Published/Created:New York, NY : William Morrow, [2016]
      ©2016
    • Holdings

       
    • Library of Congress Subjects:United States. National Aeronautics and Space Administration--Officials and employees--Biography.
      Women mathematicians--United States--Biography.
      African American women--Biography.
      African American mathematicians--Biography.
      Space race.
    • Genre/Form: Biographies.
    • Edition:First edition.
    • Description:xviii, 346 pages ; 24 cm
    • 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.
    • Notes:Includes bibliographical references (pages 319-328) and index.
    • ISBN:9780062363596 (hardcover)
      006236359X (hardcover)
      9780062363619 (ebook)
      9780062466440
      0062466445
      9780062363602
      0062363603
    • 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.
    Session Timeout
    New Session