Liza Mundy

The award-winning New York Times bestseller about the American women who secretly served as codebreakers during World War II--a "prodigiously researched and engrossing" (New York Times) book that "shines a light on a hidden chapter of American history" (Denver Post). Recruited by the U.S. Army and Navy from small towns and elite colleges, more than ten thousand women served as codebreakers during World War II. While their brothers and boyfriends took up arms, these women moved to Washington and learned the meticulous work of code-breaking. Their efforts shortened the war, saved countless lives, and gave them access to careers previously denied to them. A strict vow of secrecy nearly erased their efforts from history; now, through dazzling research and interviews with surviving code girls, bestselling author Liza Mundy brings to life this riveting and vital story of American courage, service, and scientific accomplishment.

The Untold Story of the American Women Code Breakers of World War II

Code Girls

The bestselling, long-secret, and page-turning story of the young American women who cracked codes during World War II, perfectly adapted for young readers. More than ten thousand women served as codebreakers during World War II, recruited by the U.S. Army and Navy. While their brothers and boyfriends took up arms, these women moved to the nation's capital to learn the top secret art of code breaking. Through their work, the "code girls" helped save countless lives and were vital in ending the war. But due to the top secret nature of their accomplishments, these women have never been able to talk about their story--until now. Through dazzling research and countless interviews with the surviving code girls, Liza Mundy brings their story to life with zeal, grace, and passion. Abridged and adapted for a middle grade audience, Code Girls brings this important story to young readers for the first time, showcasing this vital tale of American courage, service, and scientific accomplishment.

The True Story of the American Women Who Secretly Broke Codes in World War II (Young Readers Edition)

Lindsay

Genius itself is often a collective phenomenon.

Eitan Hershkovitz

A fun read on a topic I did not know much about. Writing can be a little dry sometimes but over all it was very interesting and filled with information.

Sahi K

I love reading well written history books and my interest mostly lies in politics or WWII. However, my knowledge about the Second World War has been limited to Nazism, the Holocaust and the occupation of Paris. This book covers a new aspect of the war for me – an American women’s perspective. Many men have been recognized and celebrated for the parts they played in the Allied victory and all of them were well deserved. However, what we never realize is the extent of involvement of women in wartime activities and how they have never been appropriately appreciated. This book gives a small glimpse into the lives of some such women code breakers who played a crucial part in the war.

This was a time when women wanted to get educated, even in unusual fields like math and science but didn’t have many job prospects because all the “important” jobs were required for men. This forced even highly intelligent and capable women to settle for low paying teaching jobs, sometimes in remote places with no facilities. But the war changed everything. All the healthy men were needed to fight the war from the frontlines and it was only the women who were left and they had to be engaged in intelligence activities to support the forces and gain advantage over the Axis powers. This books tells the story of how highly intelligent women graduates were picked from colleges and also school teachers who were tested and shipped to DC. They were sworn to an oath of secrecy, mostly had to learn cryptanalysis on the job and get to work immediately. They played a crucial role in the battle of Midway, the attack and killing of Japanese commander Yamamoto who was responsible for Pearl Harbor and the sinking of many enemy ships. Their code breaking skills were highly responsible for cutting off supplies to the Japanese troops in the Pacific and create a diversion that helped the Allied forces in the D-Day invasion of Normandy.

The book describes a lot of technical details about code breaking in the initial days and might be very interesting for readers of the profession. It explores the relationships that these amazing women forged with each other and in some cases maintained their whole life. But the author is also able to show us how these women were affected by the war – they were happy when they helped in the defeat of the enemies, satisfied with saving the lives of their countrymen but also devastated when their own family members sacrificed their lives. Their aspirations, friendships, vulnerabilities are captured well in the book. At the same time, the stereotypes and misogyny they faced is also quite clearly captured.

What happened to these women after the war is worth noting and mentioned in the last chapter. Most of the women had to settle as homemakers because the jobs were for men and they couldn’t disclose their code breaking activities. Some women did manage to go back to college and become professionals in other fields. Nothing would ever be the same for them though. However, some women managed to remain in the code breaking profession. But most of them remained close to each other because only they understood.

I feel proud and privileged to read about these women. We should appreciate what they did in times when women were not considered capable of anything other than being housewives and mothers. They have made it possible for us to pursue our dreams and prove that women can be anything they want to be. I salute these amazing women for their work and it’s time they are all celebrated. And I thank the author for bringing their story to us.

PS: I thank Hachette books and Netgalley for providing me an ARC of the book in exchange for an honest review.

Jeni Enjaian

This book, by the title alone, fits me perfectly. My dad purchased this for me as a Christmas gift. I really wish that I could give this book five or even four stars. At times I found myself absolutely fascinated by the book. At others, confused. 
Mundy delved deep into research for this book. She clearly knows her stuff. Organizationally, she could do much better. If she had, perhaps, focused on one or two of the girls and talked about their movements and exploits and fashioned the rest of the narrative around that, I would probably have been able to give this book five stars.

That being said, I really enjoyed reading this book. Mundy writes well. I loved the topic, one that more people should know about.

Christine Liu

My thoughts on this book are mixed. To begin with, this is a book that absolutely needed to be written. Most of the American women who became code breakers during World War II never received the recognition they deserved for their work during their lifetimes. Cryptanalysis is not for the faint of heart, and these women used their logic and ingenuity to achieve tremendous breakthroughs for the war effort.

Although the premise of this book is an interesting and necessary one, the execution suffers from some weaknesses. The introduction and epilogue were both compelling and well written, but the bulk of the narrative in between is largely rambling and disorganized. I tend to prefer nonfiction books that have a mostly linear narrative structure; or, barring that, a nonlinear narrative in which different sections are organized thematically. This book does neither. It's not told chronologically. Rather, it jumps back and forth between different points of the war, at times introducing several new women, and is very repetitive. Chapters overlap with other chapters in time, different women's stories weave in and out, interspersed with details about background events and details about codebreaking. It's one anecdote after another along a jumbled timeline. The result is that you never really feel like you're getting to know any of the women.

This book is essentially a collection of snapshots of a few specific codebreakers, and I think I would have had an easier time reading it and keeping track of what had happened to whom if each chapter focused on a single woman's experience rather than cycling through a number of them without really linking them with any cohesive theme or event. There's less discussion of the codebreaking itself than I expected. Ultimately, this book sits somewhere between a series of profiles of codebreakers and a history of American wartime codebreaking, and somehow fails to be either. It should have been a lot more interesting than it was.

For those who are interested in learning more about the science of cryptanalysis, I recommend The Code Book: The Science of Secrecy from Ancient Egypt to Quantum Cryptography by Simon Singh.

Code Girls The Untold Story of the American Women Code Breakers of World War II

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