Hidden figures : the American dream and the untold story of the Black women mathematicians who helped win the space race

Resource Information

The work Hidden figures : the American dream and the untold story of the Black women mathematicians who helped win the space race represents a distinct intellectual or artistic creation found in Austin Public Library. This resource is a combination of several types including: Work, Language Material, Books.

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Label

Hidden figures : the American dream and the untold story of the Black women mathematicians who helped win the space race

Title remainder

the American dream and the untold story of the Black women mathematicians who helped win the space race

Statement of responsibility

Margot Lee Shetterly

Creator

• Shetterly, Margot Lee
• trueLee Shetterly, Margot

Subject

• African American mathematicians -- Biography
• African American women
• trueAfrican American women
• African American women -- Biography
• Biographies
• Biographies
• Employees
• trueInternational competition
• trueRace relations
• trueRacism in employment
• trueRacism in politics and government
• SOCIAL SCIENCE / Ethnic Studies / African American Studies
• trueSpace programs
• trueSpace programs -- International competition
• Space race
• Space race
• United States
• trueUnited States -- History -- 20th century
• United States, National Aeronautics and Space Administration
• United States, National Aeronautics and Space Administration -- Officials and employees -- Biography
• Women mathematicians
• trueWomen mathematicians
• Women mathematicians -- United States -- Biography
• Biography
• 20th Century
• African American mathematicians

Genre

• Biographies
• Biography

Language

eng

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

Tone

• trueInspiring

Writing style

• trueRichly detailed

Award

• ALA Notable Book, 2017.
• Amelia Bloomer List, 2017
• BCALA Literary Award for Nonfiction, 2017.
• Booklist Editors' Choice: Adult Books for Young Adults, 2016.
• National Academies Communication Award, 2017.

Biography type

collective biography

Cataloging source

DLC

Dewey number

510.92/520973

Index

index present

Interest level

UG

LC call number

QA27.5

LC item number

.L44 2016

Literary form

non fiction

Nature of contents

bibliography

Reading level

9.7

Study program name

Accelerated Reader AR