Publishers Weekly
★ 05/16/2022
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. (July)
From the Publisher
"Kleiman’s persistence in sleuthing out the story of the ENIAC 6 programmers has resulted in an admirable contribution to the historical record and a labor of love."—Wall Street Journal
“While early women programming pioneers Ada Lovelace and Grace Hopper have taken their place in the annals of computer history, Kleiman shows us that there were other women programmers — like the ENIAC 6 — who deserve to be recognized as well.”—Associated Press
"[Author] Kleiman became obsessed with learning the identities of all the earliest women programers. The result of that magnificent obsession was a documentary in 2014 and this book, which melds social history with the major events of the second world war and the biographies of these six remarkable pioneers to produce an irresistible narrative." —The Guardian
“Everyone told Kathy Kleiman that the women she sought did not exist. Thankfully, she didn’t believe them. In Proving Ground, Kleiman pursues her subjects with the instincts of an investigative journalist, uncovering the stories of six groundbreaking women who battled sexism, complex trajectory equations, and blown vacuum tubes in order to program the world’s first digital computer. With unforgettable, detailed prose, Kleiman blends the history of early computing with the lives of the women who made modern programming possible. Proving Ground is a book so deeply inspiring that it has the power to completely alter how we see the technology field and the role of women within it.”—Nathalia Holt, New York Times bestselling author of Rise of the Rocket Girls
“With this book, Kathy Kleiman restores the ENIAC 6 to their rightful, lauded place in the history of computing. The bond she developed with these women through her years of research and interviews is evident, as each of them come vibrantly and vividly alive in her writing. Their story will serve as inspiration for generations of women in STEM.”—Keith O’Brien, author of Fly Girls
“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.”—Publishers Weekly, starred review
“Kathy Kleiman's courageous pursuit across decades discovering and sharing the story of the extraordinary contribution of these first programmers and founding inventors gives us a gift that can change the future - empowering a more welcoming technical innovation culture for all.”—Megan Smith, Former United States Chief Technology Officer and CEO shift7
"An important and inspiring little-known narrative in modern computing history."—Kirkus Reviews
"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. . . [T]he 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."—Booklist
"A compelling account of a group of pioneering women."
—Library Journal
"Kleiman explores the lives of [the ENIAC six] and their ground-breaking work in this inspiring history. "—Arlington Magazine
"Kathy Kleiman’s debut nonfiction is a celebratory biography of the six women who helped program ENIAC, the first general-purpose computer. In engaging prose, she describes how the women found opportunities during World War II, while many men were overseas, and overcame discrimination and harassment to accomplish their important work."—Christian Science Monitor
Library Journal
07/01/2022
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
Kirkus Reviews
2022-05-06
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.
