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Wandering in Strange Lands Audiobook Summary

One of Buzzfeed’s 24 New Books We Couldn’t Put Down

“One of the smartest young writers of her generation.”–Book Riot

From the acclaimed cultural critic and New York Times bestselling author of This Will Be My Undoing–a writer whom Roxane Gay has hailed as “a force to be reckoned with”–comes this powerful story of her journey to understand her northern and southern roots, the Great Migration, and the displacement of black people across America.

Between 1916 and 1970, six million black Americans left their rural homes in the South for jobs in cities in the North, West, and Midwest in a movement known as The Great Migration. But while this event transformed the complexion of America and provided black people with new economic opportunities, it also disconnected them from their roots, their land, and their sense of identity, argues Morgan Jerkins. In this fascinating and deeply personal exploration, she recreates her ancestors’ journeys across America, following the migratory routes they took from Georgia and South Carolina to Louisiana, Oklahoma, and California.

Following in their footsteps, Jerkins seeks to understand not only her own past, but the lineage of an entire group of people who have been displaced, disenfranchised, and disrespected throughout our history. Through interviews and hundreds of pages of transcription, Jerkins braids the loose threads of her family’s oral histories, which she was able to trace back 300 years, with the insights and recollections of black people she met along the way–the tissue of black myths, customs, and blood that connect the bones of American history.

Incisive and illuminating, Wandering in Strange Lands is a timely and enthralling look at America’s past and present, one family’s legacy, and a young black woman’s life, filtered through her sharp and curious eyes.

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Wandering in Strange Lands Audiobook Narrator

Morgan Jerkins is the narrator of Wandering in Strange Lands audiobook that was written by Morgan Jerkins

Morgan Jerkins is the author of Wandering in Strange Lands and the New York Times bestseller This Will Be My Undoing and a Senior Culture Editor at ESPN’s The Undefeated. Jerkins is a visiting professor at Columbia University and a Forbes 30 Under 30 leader in media, and her short-form work has been featured in the New Yorker, the New York Times, the Atlantic, Rolling Stone, Elle, Esquire, and the Guardian, among many other outlets. She is based in Harlem. 

About the Author(s) of Wandering in Strange Lands

Morgan Jerkins is the author of Wandering in Strange Lands

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Wandering in Strange Lands Full Details

Narrator Morgan Jerkins
Length 8 hours 3 minutes
Author Morgan Jerkins
Category
Publisher HarperAudio
Release date August 04, 2020
ISBN 9780062958914

Subjects

The publisher of the Wandering in Strange Lands is HarperAudio. includes the following subjects: The BISAC Subject Code is Civil Rights, Political Science

Additional info

The publisher of the Wandering in Strange Lands is HarperAudio. The imprint is HarperAudio. It is supplied by HarperAudio. The ISBN-13 is 9780062958914.

Global Availability

This book is only available in the United States.

Goodreads Reviews

Sue

June 19, 2020

Morgan Jerkins had heard her family’s many stories and histories throughout her life but over time she began to wonder how those tales, folk sayings, etc might relate to the reality of her background. Just who were her “people?” By tracing the Great Migration in reverse and tracking specific parts of both paternal and maternal forebears, she creates a portrait of black life in America post slavery that is likely relevant for many Black people in this country. The author physically travels to areas from her family’s past, as close to specific sites as possible, and locates as many records as possible. She also finds local experts on the people and history. Her first destination was the Low Country of Georgia and South Carolina. And the Gullah Geechee people who have lived on coastal islands and were able to maintain many African practices. She researched the starting points for those who migrated to Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, like her mother’s family and found Georgia. Her father was from North Carolina but tracing earlier migration patterns took Jerkins to Louisiana and to a much better understanding of Creole culture. From there she follows displaced slaves, freedmen and Indians to Oklahoma, the land at the end of the Trail of Tears. The mix of people and cultures here became a battle of sorts that is still unsettled.Lastly, she trailed those who continued to seek a better life and headed for California. For me, this was perhaps the hardest and harshest part of the saga. Here there were few, if any, good endings, rare acquisitions of homes and properties. More often there were those who were redlined out of good neighborhoods, pushed into jobs with no future, living in Los Angeles, a city with a history of racist police. Reading this book at this time in our country’s history feels right and powerful. The final section about Watts, South Central LA, etc, was eye opening. This was written in 2019 for publication now. What timing. While it approaches black experience through a personal filter, it also deals with general experiences. While I am white and have not had the same life experiences, I am also interested in genealogy and my forbears. I am glad I had the opportunity to read this book and learn.A copy of this book was provided by the publisher through NetGalley in return for an honest review.

Bethany (Beautifully Bookish Bethany)

July 31, 2020

Actual Rating: 4.5 starsThanks to Libro.FM for providing me with the audiobook for this one! It's read by the author and fantastic. Wandering in Strange Lands is part memoir/family history, part ethnography as the author traces the Great Migration back to specific Black communities in the United States. It is a fascinating, thoughtful and nuanced exploration of Blackness in America and the complexities of racism, colorism, gentrification, and labeling of groups. We travel from the Gullah Geechee being mistreated and forced off their land, to the difficult and complicated history of Creole people in Louisiana, to the treatment of Black Native Americans with lack of access to resources, and finally to the supposed promised land of California and the continuation of racialized violence and oppression there. The author takes us on a journey into the past and across the country that offers a window into a darker, untold history that is still bleeding into the present day.How do we grapple with rising property taxes forcing people off their land and diminishing Black wealth? Or the fact that a surprisingly large number of free Black people were themselves slave owners? Or the ways in which racist policies segregated and erased Black Native people who are still facing discrimination within some Native communities, despite Indigenous Americans writ large having been greatly oppressed themselves? There are no easy answers, but this feels like an important book that is asking the right questions. Jerkins talks about how documentation is prized in historical and geneological research, but how often this can be difficult and misleading for Black people. Hiding interracial relationships, or children born into secondary relationships, or arbitrary government policies that classify or re-classify people. She suggests there is value in stories passed down through generations, things known in local communities, but all too often those things are being lost in the modern day. Along with them, traditional forms of spirituality and belief which the author learned more about along the way. I think this is well worth reading and considering. I did feel the final section on Los Angeles felt less structured than the others and I would have liked to see a bit more history explored there. I also would have liked to hear perspectives from Native people who are not Black, although I understand why that might have been difficult. Or more on the challenges they are facing in general today and how what she discusses here adds an additional layer of complexity. That said, I think this is definitely worthwhile reading and I look forward to seeing more from this author.

Caleb

January 23, 2021

I enjoyed this book more than Jerkins first one. She journeys from her New Jersey home state to the Deep South and Western areas in search of family roots. I was saddened, but not surprised to hear examples like McIntosh, Georgia where tax hikes on Gulla people in an effort to take land from African descendants and pass it to colonizers or corporations (e.g. Marriott). 14 million acres were lost in Beaufort, South Carolina by Gullah families. Hilton Head Island Gullah families lost heir property due to lack of wills and clear titles to the deeds. The Great Migration also lead to forfeiture of land to colonizers. Out West, Jerkins discussed how the Knights of the Klu Klux Klan were knowingly recruited into the LAPD. CA blacks were discriminated against and excluded from jobs, leading to high unemployment in those communities. Rising unemployment and police brutality are ingredients for a riot. It’s amazing how history repeats itself in present day.

Laura

May 02, 2020

This book is an entirely different animal from Jerkins's first book, THIS WILL BE MY UNDOING. Coming into it expecting the same kind of writing might be disappointing to readers; I wish I hadn't had the ghost of that book hanging over me as I read this one. In THIS WILL BE MY UNDOING, Jerkins made herself vulnerable and laid herself open; it's a deeply insightful and moving series of personal refections on her experiences as a young black woman in America. This book is not nearly so focused on the self, and Jerkins does not open herself in the same way. Part memoir and part history, it's an exploration of the effects of movement and migration on black America, and specifically, how Jerkins's own family fits into the larger picture.There's so much to chew on here. In order to discover more about her own roots and her ancestors, Jerkins, who grew up in New Jersey, the daughter of people who came north during the Great Migration, travels across the country visiting and interviewing black folks in many locales. She visits the Gullah Geechee people on the coast of Georgia, Creole folk in Louisiana, and African-Americans with complex kinship ties to Cherokee and Seminole people in Oklahoma. The stories she tells are fascinating and important in and of themselves, as all of her encounters help to illuminate pieces of America history that are often neglected. Using these visits as stepping-off points, she delves into the complex histories of race and family in America. She asks big questions about the importance of blood and DNA in determining identity, and about the ways that labels and definitions are often murkier that we think, and can cause their own kind of harm. The section on Creole people, and how Creole identity has been been defined differently throughout was especially thoughtful.If I had not read her earlier book, I would have left it at that. This is a fabulous historical case study rooted in the history of one family. But I found myself seeking the kind of openness Jerkins displayed in her first book of essays. This is certainly a personal story, and Jerkins does get into the ways that learning about her family's messy history changed the way she thought about herself. But her own story sometimes felt like an afterthought--a framing device rather than something central. Perhaps the book was trying to do too much at once.That said, this was still a smart and engaging read and has left me with plenty to think about. The audiobook, which Jerkins narrates, is wonderful. She's got a direct and very matter-of-fact way of speaking that draws you in as a listener. I'll continue to read anything she writes.

molly

February 13, 2021

Wandering in Strange Lands is a book I highly recommend, Morgan Jerkins is a talented writer who is able to bring stories and the past to life in a way that is both touching and informative.Jerkins takes the reader on a journey to investigate her family's history through a travel log like style, as she journeys through America in an attempt to find her ancestors and story. Jerkins specifically focuses on the Great Migration and how that affected the experiences of Black Americans. This book is extremely well researched, but has a unique memoir storytelling quality that keeps you engaged the whole time. I learned so much and throughly recommend to anyone interested in the nuances of how history is made through the lense of the black experience, or just wants to read a well written book.

Hanna

December 17, 2020

A memoir & cultural history combined. Jerkins explores the Great Migration of Black folks from the south to the north through her own family’s lineage. From the south lands of South Carolina & Georgia, to Louisiana and Oklahoma. I listened to an ALC of this book courtesy of Libro.fm, and tbh, I think this has made its way into one of my fave reads of the year! I loved it so much that I fully intend to buy a physical copy for my bookshelf! In the audiobook, Jerkins narrates her own book, and as usual, I’m a sucker for it, but also, her narration was genuinely so inviting. I learned so much while reading this, and kept questioning why I learned little to nothing about the great migration in school, or idk, the fact that there were free Black people living in Louisiana before it was a member of the United States?? If you’re interested at all in cultural anthropology or Black history, pick this one up!!

Sachi

September 12, 2020

WANDERING IN STRANGE LANDS by Morgan Jerkins is an exploration of the Great Migration and Jerkins’s own personal narrative. After millions of Black individuals left the South to escape Jim Crow laws and discrimination, many became disconnected from their roots and heritage. In this book Jerkins retraces her family lineage, and learns the shared history of Black migrants across the country.I absolutely loved this sophomore book from Morgan Jerkins! I really enjoyed learning alongside her, and hearing her process her thoughts as the journey progressed. There were many things I learned while reading this book, and I was so engrossed in these stories that it prompted me to finally pick up THE WARMTH OF OTHER SUNS by Isabel Wilkerson (spoiler alert - I finished it last night and loved it).Things I didn’t know about or realize until I read this book: The perception of Creole individuals in the Black community, root workers and healers, the Gullah Geechee people in South Carolina, and the deep intersection of Black and Indigenous people.Overall, this book was so beautifully written, and I especially loved the reflective moments toward the end of the book. I really appreciate the time and effort Jerkins put into this book, and I’m so glad I read it! Highly recommend for those who love history and/or want to learn more about the Great Migration.

Geoffrey

June 28, 2021

(Note:I received an advanced reader copy of this book courtesy of NetGalley) Morgan Jerkins’ investigation of her ancestors ended up becoming almost as much an avalanche of revelations to me as it was for her. With every branch of the family that she thoroughly explored through visits, research, and interviews, she ended up revealing a flood of information about some facet of the black experience in America that was either little-known to this reader, such as the Creoles of the Gulf or black Indians, or completely unknown. I became particularly aware of my own knowledge gaps when Jerkins examined roots among her Gullah ancestors of the Lowcountry in Hilton Head - a place I have vacationed with my family and had absolutely no idea was the center of a distinct subgroup and their unique culture until now.If you are confused by any of what I have referred to, then definitely be sure to keep an eye out for when Wandering in Strange Lands arrives at your library or bookstore so that you yourself may take this eye-opening journey through the past alongside its author.

Karen

August 28, 2020

Morgan Jerkins was born and raised in South Jersey but wanted to explore her roots. She visits with Geechee in Georgia, Gullah in SC, Creoles in Louisiana, and Cherokee and Choctaw in OK. She concludes by exploring LA, where she herself had lived. I found this interesting - having grown up in SC, I am very familiar with the Gullah culture. I know a number of Creole people and was fascinated by those chapters. I know several Native Americans from OK so was interesting in comparing and contrasting her stories along with what I heard. This is a reverse Great Migration account and I learned a lot.

Mel

September 16, 2020

“With this book, I hope to help Black people to regain their narratives and recontextualize the shame that has been pressed upon our hearts from time immemorial. We are here because we are in perpetual motion, our migratory patterns rivaling those of birds. I do not believe that there is a promised land for us in America, I am disappointed that I could not find a happier end for these pages, but you and I know that the promised land does not exist. Racism abides in all zip codes on every migratory route.... if we are the promised land, then that means that you, yes you, exist on a plane larger than your eyes can see. Home is wherever we decide to settle but our truest space is one another.”Jerkins’ second book, a journey to dig into her past, did NOT disappoint. I listened to the audiobook quickly, anxious to find out what she did along her travels. As always her writing is flawlessly insightful. I’ll read whatever she writes but I especially loved the idea that jettisoned her onto the path to this project because I imagine it will resonate with so many other people. These kinds of stories, the ones that grow out of the most genuine & sincere interest, tend to be the most impactful. I’m very much looking forward to her next great work. I’m officially a forever fan of Jerkins.

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