Proving Ground

October 1, 2021

Ranging from when New York City was inhabited by the Lenape people to the present day, from grubby brothels to chic hotels, Bird tells the story of New York by focusing on A Block in Time that's bounded east-west by Sixth and Seventh avenues and north-south by 23rd and 24th streets and is overlooked by the famous Flatiron Building (45,000-copy first printing). Chief editor for Le Monde diplomatique, Chollet argues In Defense of Witches, whom she sees as symbolic of female resistance to male oppression throughout history, with the women most likely to be perceived as witches--independent-minded, childless, or older--still being outcast today (75,000-copy first printing). Having reported from Hong Kong as well as South East Asia, journalist England offers Fortune's Bazaar, the story of kaleidoscopic Hong Kong through the diverse peoples who have made the city what it is today (75,000-copy first printing). A former senior editor at The New Yorker and author of the multi-best-booked Ike and Dick, Frank returns with a reassessment of our 33rd president in The Trials of Harry S. Truman. Influential Brown economist Galor, whose unified growth theory focuses on economic growth throughout human history, tracks The Journey of Humanity to show that the last two centuries represent a new phase differentiated from the past by generally better living conditions but also a radically increased gap between the rich and the rest. Following A Thousand Ships, which was short-listed for Britain's Women's Prize for Fiction and a best seller in the United States, Haynes's Pandora's Jar belongs to a growing number of titles that put the female characters of Greek mythology front and center as less passive or secondary than they've been regarded (25,000-copy hardcover and 30,000-copy paperback first printing). In Against All Odds, popular historian Kershaw tells the story of four soldiers in the same regiment--Capt. Maurice "Footsie" Britt, West Point dropout Michael Daly, soon-to be Hollywood legend Audie Murphy, and Capt. Keith Ware, eventually the most senior US general to die in Vietnam--who became the four most decorated U.S. soldiers of World War II. After World War II, six women were given the daunting task of programming the world's first general-purpose, all-electronic computer, called ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer) and meant to calculate a single ballistic trajectory in 20 seconds rather than 40 hours by hand; internet law and policy specialist Kleiman interviewed four of the women over two decades, eventually writing Proving Ground and producing the award-winning documentary The Computers (50,000-copy first printing). From former Wall Street Journal reporter and New York Times best-selling author Lowenstein (e.g., When Hubris Failed), Ways and Means shows how President Abraham Lincoln and his administration parlayed efforts to fund the Civil War into creating a more centralized government. New York Times best-selling author Rappaport (Caught in the Revolution) shows what happened After the Romanovs to the aristocrats, artists, and intellectuals who fled the Russian Revolution for Paris (60,000-copy first printing).

Copyright 2021 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from May 16, 2022
Law professor Kleiman recounts in her fantastic debut the vital but overlooked role six women played in the history of computers. While researching computer programming, Kleiman came across photos of unidentified women working on the ENIAC, “the world’s first all-electronic, programmable, general-purpose computer” built at the University of Pennsylvania during WWII. Unconvinced by a museum director’s suggestion that they were models, she dug deeper and uncovered their role in ENIAC’s development. In 1942, with the US having joined WWII and men in short supply, the Army hired young women with math backgrounds to program ENIAC to calculate missile trajectories. With no manuals to aid them, Frances Elizabeth Snyder Holberton, Betty Jean Jennings, Kathleen McNulty, Marlyn Wescoff, Frances Bilas, and Ruth Lichterman took the job. Despite harassment and discriminatory treatment (they were classified SP, for “subprofessional and subscientific”), they persevered, and with their success opened up an “electronic computing revolution” that some “would soon call... the birth of the Information Age,” Kleiman writes. Kleiman has a novelist’s gift for crafting a page-turning narrative, and the one on offer is both revelatory and inspiring. Fans of Dava Sobel’s The Glass Universe and Margot Lee Shetterly’s Hidden Figures are in for a treat.

June 1, 2022
A group biography of the women who "pioneered ways to communicate" with "the mainframe computers that dominated computer history in the 1940s, '50s, and '60s." Kleiman, who teaches internet law at American University Washington College of Law, was inspired to write this book after discovering a mysterious black-and-white photograph in Harvard's Lamont Library. During her subsequent research and interviews, she learned the story of the six women who helped program the first modern computer, a story that was missing from the history of the Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer. "It is up to oral histories to fill in the gaps and share the important stories and lives left out," she writes. In an engaging narrative in the vein of Hidden Figures, Kleiman shares the background of each of these women as well as how they became a part of a secret U.S. Army project. During World War II, the Army hoped to increase the accuracy of its artillery, and the desktop calculators used to calculate missile trajectories were too slow. "On average," writes the author, "it took about thirty hours to calculate a trajectory using a desktop calculator." As the Army's arsenal increased, it required new firing tables and needed faster calculations. Many believed the ENIAC was the answer. Due to their educational backgrounds and experience calculating missile trajectories using the standard method, these women were asked to participate in the programming of the ENIAC. Because many men were in battle, "the war greatly expanded opportunities for college-educated women with backgrounds in engineering, science, and math." As the author shows, despite their skills, the women still faced discrimination. In fact, in attempting to tell their stories, Kleiman received "discriminatory pushback" herself, including being accused of writing "revisionist history." She persisted, however, and achieved her goal of restoring these women to their rightful place in computer history. The author includes a helpful five-page cast of characters. An important and inspiring little-known narrative in modern computing history.

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June 1, 2022
In the history of computer programming, stories of women's contributions are frequently untold. Kleiman spotlights one such gap in programming history here. During and after WWII, six women--Kathleen McNulty, Frances Bilas, Frances Elizabeth Snyder, Marlyn Wescoff, Ruth Lichterman, and Betty Jean Jennings--used mathematical skill and innovation to program early computing technology. They faced sexism in their jobs and were made to learn new pieces of technology via blueprints before being allowed to interact with the equipment itself. Kleiman excels at capturing the pressures of working in technology during a highly stressful period in history, particularly when the results of technological trials directly impacted war efforts. At times, the focus of the narrative strays from the women, to a slight detriment of the book's intention. However, the inclusion of direct interviews with the women and the clear passion for their stories make Proving Ground a needed and welcome addition to the shelves of computer history.

COPYRIGHT(2022) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

July 1, 2022

Kleiman, founder of the Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer (ENIAC) Programmers Project, tells the story of six women who programmed the first general purpose computer. During World War II, the U.S. government recruited mathematicians--mostly women--to faster calculate ballistics trajectories since many men had been drafted in the war. Six of the women had to learn how to use the machine on their own; they pioneered programming techniques and best practices that are still in use today. Kleiman includes short biographies of each of the six women and describes their lives while working on the ENIAC project at the University of Pennsylvania. She details the work that they did and notes introductory programming concepts for unfamiliar readers. Also explored is the sexism the women experienced when the men on the project took credit for their work. Kleiman also chronicles the women's lives after they left the ENIAC project as well as her own experiences uncovering their stories. VERDICT A compelling account of an underappreciated group of pioneering women.--Rebekah Kati

Copyright 2022 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.