Elizabeth Cobbs, The Hello Girls: America's First Women Soldiers

This is the story of how America’s first women soldiers helped win World War I...and then were forced to battle the U.S. Army. In 1918, 223 AT&T switchboard operators enlisted and were sent to France, where they ran communications while risking enemy fire and enduring an uneasy truce with male soldiers. After the war they were unexpectedly denied veteran status—and thus began a 60-year fight for recognition.

New York Times bestselling author Elizabeth Cobbs deftly intercuts the Hello Girls’ saga with the fight for suffrage.

“This engaging history crackles with admiration...for the country’s first female soldiers” (The New Yorker).