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Kathleen Broome Williams

Forfatter af Grace Hopper: Admiral of the Cyber Sea

6+ Works 67 Members 2 Reviews

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Kathleen Broome Williams, a graduate of Wellesley College and Columbia University, holds a PhD from City University of New York. She is the author of Grace Hopper, Secret Weapon and Improbable Warriors, which won a History of Science Society book award. Currently, she is a professor of history at vis mere Cogswell Polytechnical College in Sunnyvale, California, and lives in Oakland, CA. vis mindre

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This is the first scholarly biography of Grace Hopper, and thus is an important book. The author, Broome Williams, did an excellent job with "Improbable Warriors: Women Scientists and the U.S. Navy in World War II," so I expect this will be a good book as well. Hopper, says the author, propelled the Navy into the computer age. She was also a superb publicist for the Navy, ever ready with quips for reporters. The author interviewed Hopper's colleagues and family members, and was granted access to archival material no one else had used. In the process, she tried to determine how Hopper navigated through a specialty dominated by men. I look forward to reading this exciting book.… (mere)
 
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MWMLibrary | Jan 14, 2022 |
Improbable Warriors is a comprehensive documentary profiling four highly-educated and motivated women whom proudly served "behind the scenes" in United States World War II campaign.

Dispelling myths that women were kept in the kitchen and subservient, Kathleen Broome Williams created a book that no only profiles the achievements of Mary Sears, Florence van Straten, Grace Murray Hopper, and Mina Spiegel Rees but illustrates the Department of the Navy changed (if only temporarily) established views on women's mental capacity and ability to contribute to the war effort.

These women were enlisted under the WAVES program or Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service. These four pioneers only represented a number of females holding Masters or PhD degrees; however many more women served in more traditional positions, we need not only think of Rosie the Riveter.

My only complaint about the book is the the chapter profiling Grace Murray Hopper (pg 113-153). She was a computer scientist and like most other "Waves," served in a capacity outside of her formal training. The chapter however primarily explained the histrionics of Cdr. Howard H. Aiken and his "Algebra Machine" the Harvard Mark I computer. Granted, Hopper had much to do with the operation of the computer and running data, but I found a bulk of the chapter didn't mention Hopper for pages.

Now, if you happen across the USS Hopper or USNS Mary Sears, you will know they were named after two indispensable women of the highest caliber.
… (mere)
 
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HistReader | Nov 19, 2012 |

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