Liza Mundy
Considered “one of our foremost historians” (Kate Moore, author of Radium Girls), Liza Mundy is an award-winning journalist and the New York Times bestselling author of five books. With meticulous reporting and vivid storytelling, her narrative nonfiction aims to engage, delight, and inform readers by providing a compelling take on important parts of American history that have long been overlooked. Her talks touch on issues of national security, leadership, STEM, politics, intelligence, and World War II history, helping to expand our collective understanding of our past by sharing true stories of the people, often unsung, who have shaped our world.
Her most recent book, The Sisterhood: The Secret History of Women at the CIA, recounts the true story of the women espionage officers—tough, brilliant, resilient—who helped build the world’s foremost spy agency. It received starred reviews from Kirkus and Booklist, which called it “arresting and suspenseful … Every page is electric with revelations.” Pulitzer Prize-winning author Steve Coll called it a “rip-roaring read about spy craft” that rewrites our understanding of the events before and after the 9/11 attacks. It was named a Best Book of the Year by Foreign Policy and Smithsonian, was a New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice, and was optioned by Lionsgate Television to develop as a scripted series, with Tony winner Scott Delman attached to executive produce.
“A masterful work of literary journalism … As compelling as it is comprehensive, The Sisterhood is a must read for anyone interested in national security, secrets, and the CIA.”
—Annie Jacobsen, New York Times bestselling author of Surprise, Kill, Vanish
Her previous book, Code Girls: The Untold Story of the American Women Code Breakers of World War II, tells another true story of women’s contributions to American intelligence, recounting the lives and legacy of more than 10,000 women recruited to break Axis codes during World War II. Code Girls was a New York Times bestseller, a Washington Post bestseller, and a Wall Street Journal bestseller. It won awards including Best General Audience Intelligence Book of 2018 from the Association of Former Intelligence Officers, which said “Code Girls does for women of that era what Hidden Figures did for African American women of the 1960s and Windtalkers did for the native American code communicators of World War II.” Mundy’s other books include Michelle: A Biography, a biography of former First Lady Michelle Obama; The Richer Sex, which explored the forces behind women’s rising economic power, and Everything Conceivable, about assisted reproduction and its societal ramifications.
A former staff writer for The Washington Post, she writes for The Atlantic, Politico, and Smithsonian, among others. She has appeared on television and radio shows including The Colbert Report, The Today Show, Good Morning America, CBS This Morning, MSNBC, CNN, C-Span, Weekend Edition, All Things Considered, and Fresh Air with Terry Gross. Mundy was a senior fellow with New America’s Better Life Lab, and the former director of the organization’s Breadwinning and Caregiving program. She was also a 2013 Bernard L. Schwartz Fellow with the New America Fellows Program and a 2020 NSA/CSS Scholar-in-Residence at the National Security Agency.
For more information, please visit lizamundy.com.
Considered “one of our foremost historians” (Kate Moore, author of Radium Girls), Liza Mundy is an award-winning journalist and the New York Times bestselling author of five books. With meticulous reporting and vivid storytelling, her narrative nonfiction aims to engage, delight, and inform readers by providing a compelling take on important parts of American history that have long been overlooked. Her talks touch on issues of national security, leadership, STEM, politics, intelligence, and World War II history, helping to expand our collective understanding of our past by sharing true stories of the people, often unsung, who have shaped our world.
Her most recent book, The Sisterhood: The Secret History of Women at the CIA, recounts the true story of the women espionage officers—tough, brilliant, resilient—who helped build the world’s foremost spy agency. It received starred reviews from Kirkus and Booklist, which called it “arresting and suspenseful … Every page is electric with revelations.” Pulitzer Prize-winning author Steve Coll called it a “rip-roaring read about spy craft” that rewrites our understanding of the events before and after the 9/11 attacks. It was named a Best Book of the Year by Foreign Policy and Smithsonian, was a New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice, and was optioned by Lionsgate Television to develop as a scripted series, with Tony winner Scott Delman attached to executive produce.
“A masterful work of literary journalism … As compelling as it is comprehensive, The Sisterhood is a must read for anyone interested in national security, secrets, and the CIA.”
—Annie Jacobsen, New York Times bestselling author of Surprise, Kill, Vanish
Her previous book, Code Girls: The Untold Story of the American Women Code Breakers of World War II, tells another true story of women’s contributions to American intelligence, recounting the lives and legacy of more than 10,000 women recruited to break Axis codes during World War II. Code Girls was a New York Times bestseller, a Washington Post bestseller, and a Wall Street Journal bestseller. It won awards including Best General Audience Intelligence Book of 2018 from the Association of Former Intelligence Officers, which said “Code Girls does for women of that era what Hidden Figures did for African American women of the 1960s and Windtalkers did for the native American code communicators of World War II.” Mundy’s other books include Michelle: A Biography, a biography of former First Lady Michelle Obama; The Richer Sex, which explored the forces behind women’s rising economic power, and Everything Conceivable, about assisted reproduction and its societal ramifications.
A former staff writer for The Washington Post, she writes for The Atlantic, Politico, and Smithsonian, among others. She has appeared on television and radio shows including The Colbert Report, The Today Show, Good Morning America, CBS This Morning, MSNBC, CNN, C-Span, Weekend Edition, All Things Considered, and Fresh Air with Terry Gross. Mundy was a senior fellow with New America’s Better Life Lab, and the former director of the organization’s Breadwinning and Caregiving program. She was also a 2013 Bernard L. Schwartz Fellow with the New America Fellows Program and a 2020 NSA/CSS Scholar-in-Residence at the National Security Agency.
For more information, please visit lizamundy.com.
The Sisterhood: The Secret History of Women at the CIA
Throughout history, there have always been assumptions about women’s capabilities—or lack thereof. This can sometimes work to women’s benefit but can also lead to disastrous results. One thing is for certain: those who underestimate women always pay the price. During World War II, it was the Axis powers who paid no attention to the unassuming housewife who was actually a spy. More recently, it was the U.S. who ignored the women analysts who’d been sounding the alarm for over a decade that an attack like 9/11 was imminent. In this talk based on her book The Sisterhood: The Secret History of Women at the CIA, historian Liza Mundy provides a deeper understanding of women’s contributions to national intelligence. In highlighting the ongoing struggle to be taken seriously that women face, Mundy paints a vivid picture of persistence and resilience and reveals how silencing women makes the world a more dangerous place.
Code Girls: The Untold Story of WWII Code Breakers
The iconic imagery of Rosie the Riveter will lead you to believe that the extent of women’s contributions to World War II labor efforts were in factories. But in fact, over 10,000 highly educated women were recruited for knowledge work and trained to be code breakers. The pioneering work these women did as code breakers not only helped turn the tide of the war and saved countless lives, but also served as the foundation for our modern intelligence endeavors. In a talk that inspires both moments of laughter and deep reflection about women’s influence through history and today, historian Liza Mundy saves this riveting story of American courage and excellence from being lost forever. Through vivid historical photos and video interviews with surviving code girls, Mundy masterfully bridges the gap between today and yesterday, leaving audiences with a profound appreciation for the enduring legacy of these remarkable women and their role in shaping the world as we know it.
Women in the Workplace: Challenges Then and Now
History has many instances where women were called upon in times of hardship and expected to quietly return to the sidelines when they were no longer needed, after they’d proven their competency and worth. Today, women are making more money than ever before and quickly surpassing their male counterparts in terms of education, but they are still often disregarded, underestimated, and only temporarily valued. Despite the progress made, the journey towards full gender equality in the workplace is far from over. Through the lens of a historian and investigative journalist, Liza Mundy offers an insightful look into the state of diversity, equity, and inclusion in the past, present, and future.
- The Richer Sex: How the New Majority of Female Breadwinners Is Transforming Sex, Love and Family (Simon & Schuster, 2012)
Selected Articles
The Long Battle for Women’s Suffrage, Smithsonian
The Women Code Breakers Who Unmasked Soviet Spies, Smithsonian
- 2018 Best General Audience Intelligence Book, Association of Former Intelligence Officers, Code Girls
- 2013 Bernard L. Schwartz Fellow, New America Foundation
- 2008 Science in Society Award, National Association of Science Writers, Everything Conceivable
- 2005 Marine Biological Laboratory Fellow
- 2003 Kaiser Foundation Media Fellow
We owe Mundy gratitude for rescuing these hidden figures from obscurity…Mundy has broken some of the codes that kept them hidden for so long.
[Mundy] displays a gift for creating both human portraits and intensely satisfying scenes.
Liza Mundy is a prodigious reporter and a wonderful writer.
BOOKS
The Sisterhood
Another winner from Mundy, who tells a story that deserves to be told about women who deserve to be remembered.
Kirkus Reviews
Code Girls
The Richer Sex
Everything Conceivable
Videos
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