Hidden figures : the American dream and the untold story of the Black women mathematicians who helped win the space race / Margot Lee Shetterly.
2016
QA27.5 .L44 2016 (Mapit)
Available at General Collection
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Details
Title
Hidden figures : the American dream and the untold story of the Black women mathematicians who helped win the space race / Margot Lee Shetterly.
Edition
First edition.
ISBN
9780062363596 (hardcover)
006236359X (hardcover)
006236359X (hardcover)
Published
New York, NY : William Morrow, [2016]
Copyright
©2016
Language
English
Description
xviii, 346 pages ; 24 cm
Call Number
QA27.5 .L44 2016
Dewey Decimal Classification
510.92/520973
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.
Bibliography, etc. Note
Includes bibliographical references (pages 319-328) and index.
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Table of Contents
A door opens
Mobilization
Past is prologue
The double V
Manifest destiny
War birds
The duration
Those who moved forward
Breaking the 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.
Mobilization
Past is prologue
The double V
Manifest destiny
War birds
The duration
Those who moved forward
Breaking the 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.