
Women in Intelligence
The Hidden History of Two World Wars
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Narrated by:
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Gemma Dawson
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By:
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Helen Fry
About this listen
A groundbreaking history of women in British intelligence, revealing their pivotal role across the first half of the twentieth century
From the twentieth century onward, women took on an extraordinary range of roles in intelligence, defying the conventions of their time. Across both world wars, far from being a small part of covert operations, women ran spy networks and escape lines, parachuted behind enemy lines, and interrogated prisoners. And, back in Bletchley and Whitehall, women's vital administrative work in MI offices kept the British war engine running.
In this major, panoramic history, Helen Fry looks at the rich and varied work women undertook as civilians and in uniform. From spies in the Belgian network "La Dame Blanche," knitting coded messages into jumpers, to those who interpreted aerial images and even ran entire sections, Fry shows just how crucial women were in the intelligence mission. Filled with hitherto unknown stories, Women in Intelligence places new research on record for the first time and showcases the inspirational contributions of these remarkable women.
©2023 Helen Fry (P)2024 TantorAll that said, I will never lose my admiration for those women like Baggert who almost certainly saved many many lives. A special place is reserved for Minsk and those nuns who are the epitome of bravery.
A little disappointing.
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Stop messing with the narration speed
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Terrible recording
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Excellent. History with women put back in it.
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I would add an extra note, that I saw a few reviews which accused this book of anti-male polemic, I believe one said the text was man-hating. I believe these readers either read a different book to me or chose to take personally the occasional reference to the struggle these women had in a world where they did not own equal rights to men . There are certainly references to a patriarchal system which did not take women seriously or offered them equal rights, but that is, indeed, part of the story, and what I remembered more from this book was the mentions of men of vision, willing to look beyond the conventions and restrictions of their societal norms who hired women for roles they had never played in the military before, who took a risk by accepting women into skilled and sometimes highly dangerous roles.
This book, just as it highlighted the excellence of women, did so too for men. Comments about this book being anti male or man hating are disingenuous, and I suspect spring more from a lack of understanding that criticism of a patriarchal system is not necessarily criticism of the men, or indeed women, within it but criticism of a social structure which represses the rights of one group (or more) in favour of promoting those of another. Readers taking a mere mention of the word patriarchy personally enough to spout lies about the book's contents in reviews perhaps makes this book even more appealing to me. If a book about women in military intelligence has upset such people, then it's probably doing its job perfectly.
Highly recommended.
Excellent, what a book!
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What a Disappointment
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