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icbikecommuter's review
5.0
Brilliantly written, yet the masterpiece itself is truly the amazing story itself. I hope this book becomes a movie! I love stories written about brilliant, strong, women who change the world.
margiep59's review
5.0
This is a stunning book. Had I still worked in a public library I would be telling everyone. This is about two brilliant people who were thrown together and developed the codebreaking system on this side of the Atlantic. Great research, wonderful writing, and the possibility of continued research about this incredible era. Move over G men, the T men and the Friedmans are on the case.
firstwords's review
4.0
3.5-4 stars. As a friend said, wonderful to see this person get her due. And boyyyyyyyy, if you didn't like J. Edgar before...
One bit that was confusing to me was, it stated that they needed two incomes to send the kids to school, but that in 1946, she did not try at all to keep or get a job, but instead went back to domestic life. This was not a woman or a family that forced domesticity on the women, so I wonder why that was, and how they got on with only a single income. Her story is different even than some of the other codebreakers and computers in this and other books, in that she headed an entire department. This was not a worker drone, this was the Vice President, so to speak, who had job offers immediately upon closing the office after WWII.
One bit that was confusing to me was, it stated that they needed two incomes to send the kids to school, but that in 1946, she did not try at all to keep or get a job, but instead went back to domestic life. This was not a woman or a family that forced domesticity on the women, so I wonder why that was, and how they got on with only a single income. Her story is different even than some of the other codebreakers and computers in this and other books, in that she headed an entire department. This was not a worker drone, this was the Vice President, so to speak, who had job offers immediately upon closing the office after WWII.
kamasue's review
3.0
Sub-subtitle: J. Edgar Hoover Really Was a Piece of Shit. I thought I'd like this more since I love puzzles. The story was fabulous but I got bogged down in some details.
mexscrabbler's review
5.0
A fascinating real story about Elizebeth Friedman, who many consider the "mother of modern cryptoanalysis and cryptography." Her contributions during WWI and WWII were tremendous, but are largely unknown, primarily because she is remembered as the wife of William Friedman, who also was a brilliant cryptanalyst.
The book is full of colorful characters, not least among them "Colonel" George Fabyan, an eccentric millionaire who sponsored a lot of research on both worthwhile and dubious enterprises at his Riverbank estate, which is where William and Elizebeth met and honed their skills.
Elizebeth was pivotal in America's efforts to defeat the Nazis and the Japanese, by creating the infrastructure which decoded a large percentage of the encrypted messages being used by America's adversaries, at a time before computers were available to perform this task. Unfortunately Elizebeth's contributions have been downplayed for far too long.
The book reads like a whodunit and doesn't disappoint.
The book is full of colorful characters, not least among them "Colonel" George Fabyan, an eccentric millionaire who sponsored a lot of research on both worthwhile and dubious enterprises at his Riverbank estate, which is where William and Elizebeth met and honed their skills.
Elizebeth was pivotal in America's efforts to defeat the Nazis and the Japanese, by creating the infrastructure which decoded a large percentage of the encrypted messages being used by America's adversaries, at a time before computers were available to perform this task. Unfortunately Elizebeth's contributions have been downplayed for far too long.
The book reads like a whodunit and doesn't disappoint.