Kathy Kleiman is a leader in Internet law and policy and currently teaches at American University Washington College of Law. Her passion for finding the truth behind these female programmers led to her founding the ENIAC Programmers Project, which completed a documentary on the subject of this book titled "The Computers: The Remarkable Story of the ENIAC Programmers." The film premiered at the Seattle International Film Festival in 2014 and won the UNAFF Grand Jury Award For Best Short Documentary at the United Nations Association Film Festival in 2016.
"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
"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
"[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
"A compelling account of a group of pioneering women."--Library
Journal
"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
"Kleiman explores the lives of [the ENIAC six] and their
ground-breaking work in this inspiring history. "--Arlington
Magazine
"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
"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
"An important and inspiring little-known narrative in modern
computing history."--Kirkus Reviews
"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
"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
"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
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