Code Girls
The ten thousand American women recruited to break Japanese and German codes — sworn to a secrecy most kept for life.
The Verdict
Ten thousand American women spent the war breaking enemy codes, and then kept the secret, most of them, for the rest of their lives. Liza Mundy recovers their story from declassified files and last-chance interviews: the schoolteachers and mathematicians recruited into Arlington Hall and the Naval Annex, the drudgery and brilliance of the work, and its enormous payoff in the Pacific and the Atlantic. It is social history and intelligence history at once, restoring a hidden female half of a war-winning effort that the men's accounts almost entirely omitted.
Who Should Read It
Read it if you want
- The women who broke Axis codes
- A hidden half of the intelligence war
- Codebreaking's payoff in the Pacific and Atlantic
- Social history from declassified files
Look elsewhere if you want
- The technical mechanics of cryptanalysis
- A single biography
- Combat narrative
Why We Rated It 4.3
Historical Context
Code Girls (2017) tells the story of the roughly ten thousand American women recruited to break Japanese and German codes during the war, working at Arlington Hall and the Naval Communications Annex, drawn from declassified records and survivor interviews.
Editions & Reading Notes
Read It Alongside
Where to Buy
ISBN: 978-0316352543
Read This Against
The same events seen from a different vantage point. The fullest understanding often lives in the space between accounts that don't agree.
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Frequently Asked Questions
- What did the code girls actually do?
- They worked as cryptanalysts breaking Japanese and German military and naval codes, contributing to victories including Midway and the Battle of the Atlantic.
- Why is their story so little known?
- They were sworn to secrecy, and many kept silent for decades; the records were only later declassified.