National Bestseller
NPR Best Book of the Year
“Not all superheroes wear capes, and Elizebeth Smith Friedman should be the subject of a future Wonder Woman movie.” —The New York Times
Joining the ranks of Hidden Figures and In the Garden of Beasts, the incredible true story of the greatest codebreaking duo that ever lived, an American woman and her husband who invented the modern science of … codebreaking duo that ever lived, an American woman and her husband who invented the modern science of cryptology together and used it to confront the evils of their time, solving puzzles that unmasked Nazi spies and helped win World War II.
In 1916, at the height of World War I, brilliant Shakespeare expert Elizebeth Smith went to work for an eccentric tycoon on his estate outside Chicago. The tycoon had close ties to the U.S. government, and he soon asked Elizebeth to apply her language skills to an exciting new venture: code-breaking. There she met the man who would become her husband, groundbreaking cryptologist William Friedman. Though she and Friedman are in many ways the “Adam and Eve” of the NSA, Elizebeth’s story, incredibly, has never been told.
In The Woman Who Smashed Codes, Jason Fagone chronicles the life of this extraordinary woman, who played an integral role in our nation’s history for forty years. After World War I, Smith used her talents to catch gangsters and smugglers during Prohibition, then accepted a covert mission to discover and expose Nazi spy rings that were spreading like wildfire across South America, advancing ever closer to the United States. As World War II raged, Elizebeth fought a highly classified battle of wits against Hitler’s Reich, cracking multiple versions of the Enigma machine used by German spies. Meanwhile, inside an Army vault in Washington, William worked furiously to break Purple, the Japanese version of Enigma—and eventually succeeded, at a terrible cost to his personal life.
Fagone unveils America’s code-breaking history through the prism of Smith’s life, bringing into focus the unforgettable events and colorful personalities that would help shape modern intelligence. Blending the lively pace and compelling detail that are the hallmarks of Erik Larson’s bestsellers with the atmosphere and intensity of The Imitation Game, The Woman Who Smashed Codes is page-turning popular history at its finest.
more
Terrific book about a little known hero of WWII. This biography describes all the code breaking E. Friedman accomplished, not just during wartime but also breaking up smuggling and organized crime. Very readable with so much interesting information about the efforts to “hear” what the other side was saying. Now it can be shown how the FBI really screwed things up for the U.S. in South America by prematurely rounding up identified spies–all to gain glory for Hoover.
There are moments most of us have had where you come across a non-fiction story from a major event in history and wind up asking yourself, ‘How did I never hear of this before?” This is what happened to me when I read Jason Fagone’s book, The Woman Who Smashed Codes. This is the story of, mainly, Elizebeth Friedman, and also her husband, William Friedman, two of the most important assets the United States has ever known in helping to win both World Wars while never stepping foot on a battlefield. Without explaining how in this review, it took a remarkable act of fate for Elizebeth’s career to wind up as it did, and isn’t it amazing how those things transpire sometimes? The Friedman’s were cryptologists, (the country’s first in a pre-NSA world), two ‘regular’ people who figured out seemingly indecipherable codes that were sent from enemies in the expectation that, well, they’d never be figured out. Fortunately for the good ‘ol USA, those enemies were wrong, and while the initial interest from the World War I experiences intrigued me, the breaking of the much more sophisticated codes from both the Japanese and German war machines of World War II was downright fascinating. This part of the story led me to conclude that had it not been for, mainly, petite, sweet, and savant-like Elizebeth deciphering literally thousands of these codes from a highly technological code-sending machine of Germany’s called Enigma, South America, could have, very possibly would have, become an entire country of Nazi collaborators on the doorstep of America. The danger of this obviously can’t be overestimated. While J Edgar Hoover took the credit for his FBI solving most of these cases and saving America, this book finally exposes the falsehood of that claim and gives credit to the woman who deserved most of it at that time, but being a woman, didn’t even get as much credit as her husband.
I highly recommend this book, and just to clarify, the only reason I gave it four stars instead of five is that for me to give a five-star rating to any book, it not only has to pass the test of a great story, fiction or non-fiction, but the writing has to be at a certain level above and beyond the majority of others. Jason Fagone’s research and re-telling of these events deserves much praise, certainly, but at times for me, it got bogged down in a bit too much detail that made the writing run dry in those sections. But what the story is about is absolutely a five-star expose that needed to be told.
If you want to read about a behind the scenes and unrecognized female hero of World War II, this is a great read. A bit tedious at times with actual details of how secret messages were solved, but well worth reading. Not enough books are written about women heros.
I had never heard of her or her accomplishments. She was careful not to upset the men’s ideas of their superiority, but was still able to do a tremendous amount of work to crack codes. She had a special gift for this, and should be recognized for her value.
This would make an interesting movie sort of like a Hidden Numbers, who knew code breaking has such an interesting history
Very interesting story about a Elizebeth Friedman who deciphered Nazi secret code using only her unique methods, not a computer. This book is on par with Hidden Figures in finally giving credit to a woman who changed the world.
This book should be made into a film. It is interesting and informative with bigger than life main characters. Elizebeth Friedman could be anyone’s mother but with a dedication and intellect that contributed so much to the war effort. She should receive more credit and publicity.
Great reminder what an epic time it was. So much meaningful work done out of sight. Glad to see it revealed. High impact.
I loved this book and the information it has uncovered. She is one of the great unsung heroes in cryptography and needs to be better known. I learned so much from this book and recommend it to my friends. It would make a fascinating documentary
Wow – had no idea of this couple who probably saved hundreds if not thousands of lives by deciphering 100s of coded messages.
I was interested from the beginning, though not surprisingly the subject matter made it a little dry. Overall I’m glad I read it.
Most informative book I’ve read in a long time. This woman was well before her time and survived despite the conditions surrounding her and her husband. She couldn’t share her secretive life and in my view should have been viewed as a major player in our countries challenges in the war. Tragic how she was treated!
It was slow to me.
Actually, this is the third book I have read involving the Friedman’s, and I thought it was the best.
I liked the book but it did bog down in the middle….or……
This book opens your eyes to the accomplishments of a very special woman, one you have never heard of. Her story of service to the government through prohibition to WWII make for fascinating reading. I highly recommend this book.
The true story of America’s first female code breaker. Fascinating read if you like American women’s history.
This book is long and wordy. The author wanted to teach me more about decoding than I wanted to know, but the true story of incredible Americans living their lives was incredible.
I wanted to like this book but like many books in this genre, it seemed bloodless to me. You learn so much about what the main characters accomplished without ever getting a glimpse of how or any entire to their personality, houghts, motivations, passions. A shame.
I don’t usually read a lot of biography-type genres, I really enjoyed this story.