The Woman Who Smashed Codes

The life story of Elizebeth Smith Friedman, who was dissatisfied with the career opportunities the study of literature gave a young driven woman in the early 20iest century and set out to find a challenge, and found it on the estate of a wealthy science and conspiracy lover. She learns the ropes of codes and ciphers by first investigating Shakespeare's plays, and then contributes crucially to the invention of cryptology as WWI presents more pressing puzzles to be solved. Over the years - together and separately - Elizebeth and her husband William Friedman invent code breaking methods, document their craft in numerous influential pamphlets, and go on to spearhead several government institutions focused on the decryption of criminal and enemy communication. The era didn't make it easy for Elizebeth to fulfil this role in a world of men, yet her skills and her successrate continue to get her jobs in the business. During WWII she and her team help bring down a Nazi spy ring in South America, but no one can talk about it as it falls under top-secret classification. Head of the FBI J. Edgar Hoover and his misogyny (he fired the few female FBI agents when his leadership began and didn't allow women to join for the next 40-50 years) and his perfect publicity stunts to claim other people's achievements, was part of the problem. So slowly Elizebeth is forgotten, while her husband continues to be celebrated.

A clever woman in a men's world, who is also a code-breaker, this was absolutely a book for me. It had a bit too much detailing on the Nazi spy activity during WWII, and sometimes too many assumptions about her and her husband's interior lives, but else this was a great read.