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Wednesday, January 15, 2020

Author Jason Fagone chronicles the life of Elizebeth Smith, who played an integral role in our nation's history — from the Great War to the Cold War. He traces Elizebeth's developing career through World War I, Prohibition, and the struggle against fascism. She helped catch gangsters and smugglers, exposed a Nazi spy ring in South America, and fought a clandestine battle of wits against Hitler's Reich, cracking multiple versions of the Enigma machine used by German operatives to conceal their communications. And through it all, she served as muse to her husband, a master of puzzles, who astonished friends and foes alike. Inside an army vault in Washington, he 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 codebreaking history through the prism of one remarkable woman's life, bringing into focus the events and personalities that shaped the modern intelligence community.