The Woman Who Smashed Codes

A True Story of Love, Spies, and the Unlikely Heroine who Outwitted America's Enemies

De: Jason Fagone

Narrado por: Cassandra Campbell

NATIONAL BESTSELLER

NPR Best Book of 2017

“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 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 1912, 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, Elizabeth 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 riviting popular history at its finest.

Includes an enhancement PDF.

Remarkable story

The early section of the book that covers Elizabeth’s early life is necessary but a bit tiresome. But when the story gets to her code-breaking work it becomes totally thrilling & engrossing. Really remarkable how much she and her husband contributed to the success of the United States in both world wars.

A surprising well-documented THRILLER

This is a well-written, true to life thriller based on recently unclassified documents. It increases my respect for the Coast Guard, more than confirms the bastardy of J. Edgar Hoover, and shows the role of British intelligence in creation of the CIA. Not only is it incredibly, historically interesting, but the pressure to keep ahead of our enemies in World War II reaches across the ages and pages to hit the reader in the chest. It starts out slowly and pleasantly, touches on bootlegging and drug running, then keeps building to a crescendo to the end of the war. The author carefully explains the personalities and what many may perceive as the weaknesses of the main characters. But I see only incredible sacrifice to the national interest and love between partners.

Fascinating Story

Well written and narrated. Moves well and keeps you interested. Would highly recommend and has some interesting comments re the FBI

Fascinating History

The book relates the fascinating story of Elizebeth Smith’s unique evolution as a cipher decoder. Highly recommended!

Wonderful true story! Not my fav author though...

An amazing true story. The author’s journalistic writing emotionally removed the reader from the story, however. I observed the story, but didn’t feel it, despite there being so much stress, pressure, worry, joy, and love in the story that I could have felt... that I *wished* to feel. But the writing never went deeper than just to tell the events.

I also could tell it was a journalist instead of a typical author because of the cliffhanger hooks sprinkled throughout, that gave the ending away before the story was even told. For example, “...little did she know she would be one of the greatest code breakers of her time.” I almost expected to read, “coming up after the break!”

However, the story is definitely worth reading just to learn the history behind it. It’s a fascinating story about an extraordinary woman. I am glad I read it.