As someone who finds reading about WWII fascinating, this book did not disappoint. We read about the memoirs of four women who worked for the OSS during WWII, highlighting the key role women played in overseas propaganda operations. I really found this book to be an interesting source of information and the material was well-researched and well-written! Such a fascinating book!

I really enjoyed Propaganda Girls by Lisa Rogak. Off the bat, I admittedly knew little about the details/OSS and their work, but I especially had never heard of the four women that Rogak highlights.

The novel was very clear cut — each chapter dove a little more into the women, their lives before/during/after WWII. Rogak did a great job of taking the OSS' large assignments and projects and writing about them clearly. It never felt too dry or heavy with dates and data, but engaging for the reader.

I will say—even with that, the novel felt long at times. I struggled near the end with pacing and kept thinking I was closer to finishing than I was.

Rounded up from 3.5 stars.

I realize I have already read at least 2 books with a similar topic, but only following some of the women featured in this book. If you enjoy WWII stories of interesting women, you will enjoy this book. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC #sponsored.

Documenting four women who worked for the OSS spreading black propaganda during WWII, "Propaganda Girls" follows in the same vein as many books in the last few years featuring women who found ways to serve in the military in non-traditional ways at a time when women were not allowed to enlist. And it made me feel the same way as many of those books have in the recent past: disappointed, frustrated, incensed, but proud. To be reminded time and again of the intelligence, creativity, and power of women in any role, but especially male-dominated ones, can be tiring, but it's always nice to add a few more strong representatives to the list.

My only wish for this book was likely not possible for the author--with four POVs, the narrative occasionally felt disjointed beyond the connection that all four women held the same type of job in the same organization and faced the same issues. Rogak found ways to weave their stories together where they overlapped or to point out similarities in their experiences, but occasionally I found myself confused in the timeline and/or location.

But it didn't take away from my overall experience too much. You'll find moments to reflect on how this parallels women's roles today, moments to laugh at their wacky ideas to demoralize troops or foster anti-Axis sentiments, and moments where you'll feel joy and pride for the work these women did, no matter how unmeasurable.

3.5 - I definitely learned a lot! Non fiction is not my typical genre, but the story of the propaganda girls kept me more interested than I expected. Would recommend this to any history lovers!

This is my Goodreads review: I loved this book. At first I was unsure if it was a novel or non-fiction but the more I read the more I realized it was not a novel, it just read like one. The author's detailed research on the 4 women she chose to highlight was well done and used in such a way to not be dry or boring. The 4 different women helped me understand what they experienced in WWII and how they coped after the war ended. If you are interested in women's war service this is the perfect book about a niche that is little spoken of.

How much do you know about the office of Morale Operations within the OSS Department during WWII? If you are like me, very little. Then add the story of four remarkable women from varying backgrounds, who are hired to develop false scripts to fool the enemy and you have the “Propaganda Girls.”

This book takes the reader on a journey through WWII through the eyes of each woman. I only knew one of the names prior to reading the book, Marlene Dietrich, but I found each one’s story fascinating.

This was an absolutely fantastic read about four fabulous and brave [out of MANY] who worked both as spies, and as propaganda writers within the OSS [which was 1. the precursor to the CIA, and 2. had several famous names were a part of the OSS as well; some are mentioned in the book], and their lives before *AND* after the war [and what storied, interesting lives they all led].

Detailed, expertly researched and written in an upfront, engaging way, this was one of the best books i have read this month, and I highly recommend it to anyone who is a history buff or enjoys stories about truly brave and strong women.

Very well done!!

Samara Naeymi is a new-to-me narrator and I seriously hope its not the last time I get to listen to her narrate a book. She does an excellent job here and makes you really feel the story and the women within it. I highly recommend this audiobook!!

I was invited to read/review this book by the publisher [St. Martin's Press] and I thank them, NetGalley, Lisa Rogak, and Macmillan Audio for providing both the eBook and audiobook ARC's in exchange for an honest review.

This is a fascinating look into the role women played in the propaganda war of WWII. In particular, Propaganda Girls looks at black propaganda and how four women were able to play special roles in US operations creating and distributing that—and how little they were given in return.

Three—Betty, Jane, and Zuzka—were women I’d never heard of before, but the fourth is Marlene—as in Dietrich, the movie star. Of the four, she has the most tenuous tie to propaganda, as her work was primarily in the USO (which one could view as a type of white propaganda). But I never realized how powerful her recording of Lili Marlene was in the war effort, and the meaning the war had for her was poignant.

The other three served in the OSS creating various types of propaganda. Reading how their interviews with prisoners or random comments they heard would spur clever ideas for propaganda that only a women would probably think of were my favorite moments in this book. And, disappointingly but unsurprisingly, each was overlooked for well-deserved promotions despite laudatory recommendations and support from their peers and immediate supervisors.

A drawback to Propaganda Girls is its structure. Each chapter deals with one woman at a certain point in their OSS activity—before, starting, zenith, afterwards—but because these chapters are mixed together and in random order per segment, I’d start a chapter about someone and have trouble recalling what went on before with that person. I would have appreciated it if Rogak had written a brief paragraph or two at the start of each chapter to reorient the reader.

Propaganda Girls is a fine read, acknowledging an overlooked role for women in WWII, and how for these women it was a high point in their lives. It’s a book I kept coming back to with great interest, and it’s recommended to fans of the era and of military history.

These women are very interesting in the time of male dominance. They all had a very fascinating story behind them.And the author did a very good job explaining how they developed. They faced a lot of options too. Petty was a very interesting person for she was a writer for a newspaper along with her husband. In hawaii. The day pearl Harbor was bombed. Things changed rapidly for her. When pearl harbor was bombed. She embarked on a journey through many different areas. She's also taking Japanese lessons as well and we're sent to China. She really liked this life. She had different husbands at that point. She did remarkable things after the war as well. June was married to a navy officer stationed in tokyo. As when the war started, they came back to the states. When her husband was stationed all the time, she became a writer. She also divorced her husband as well. Y She had a great life with her new husband after the war. ZUZKA Who's the most interesting because she had to leave her home Country, which was CZ EC HO So OPAK. IN. Because she was jewish and the german army was coming in. She Married a merican left just in time. They traveled all over the place in europe. They came to america and this was a struggle. They?
Also eventually divorced. She had a very interesting way because she could speak German. So she went over back there to help the Americans.. She had a difficult time after the war as well. Arrow Dietrich. MPR L ENE Di. Etr I. C. H. Was a famous movie star in german She was signed by paramount. During the war she did different concerts. She had a very interesting life as well. This author is very interesting.How she strongly These stories together and it was a very great read.Because everybody had their own opinion and how they managed to survive

The introductions of the women felt very long compared to the writing about what they did during the war. I feel like there could have been more said about their war time. Overall I enjoyed reading about women involved in WWII since for so long women’s voices have been ignored in wartime history.

Propaganda Girls -The Secret War of the Women in OSS by Lisa Rogak is a meticulously researched, well-organized, and well-written account of four women who work for the Office of Strategic Services. Their work during World War II helped change the course of the war for the Allied forces. The Historical information gives the reader a look behind the scenes on what the Allied Forces used propaganda for in their desire to combat the enemy. .

The book focuses on four women who worked for the OSS. Betty McDonald ( a reporter from Hawaii), Bozena (Zuzka) Lauwers (a language scholar from Czechoslovakia), Jane Smith-Hutton (wife of naval attache stationed in Tokyo), and Marlene Dietrich (German American Actress and singer). Each woman worked for the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) during World War II in various capacities, but all of their roles, in one way or another, consisted of creating propaganda to target enemy forces. They created stories, entertainment, political cartoons, and leaflets that were carefully disseminated and distributed into the hands of the enemy. When the propaganda was effective it had the power to sway thousands of enemy soldiers to surrender.

I found the stories of these four brave, smart women fascinating, I also thought the subject matter posed a fascinating perspective how far the Allied Forces were willing to go in order to defeat the enemy. These four women had talent, ideas, and brains. I am glad to have found out more about these women and the impact they had on the world’s history.

I would like to thank the author, St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

A great book on yet another group of unsung women in history. As a fan of women in history I will never get enough of books like this because it seems that with each one, I learn and discover something new.
I hadn't really heard of the OSS before but am not at all surprised in the role women had in the organization, and this book serves as an amazing highlight reel on four of the women involved. We get to know so much about who they were, what they did in such great detail.
It definitely left me wanting to know more about these four and the OSS.

Thanks to St. martins press for the arc of this book. it was a great story of four women one of whom was very popular as an actress and their lives in the OSS during World War II. I enjoyed the snippet and sections of each woman as they progress through the war and what they encountered it was truly in lightning. I had hoped there would be more discussion around general Donovan and his role with these women. The book kept me involved and it was exceedingly interesting during all portions of the World War II, especially afterwards a very good read.

Absolutely loved this book! At the end it felt like u had sat down with each of these amazing women and had the chance to talk to them about their lives

Propaganda Girls gives us a look at some of the women who were instrumental in the OSS activities in World War II. Betty, Jane, Zuzka, and Marlene were four of the many women who were recruited for their language abilities and their willingness to go where they were needed to accomplish the mission. I had a pretty good grasp of the job that the OSS did, but I didn't realize how big of an impact was made by these women. They worked long hours under difficult conditions and, at times, their lives were at risk. This is an interesting read; one that was, for me, annoyingly eye opening to the lack of promotability some of them faced while doing the same job as their male counterparts. I recommend this to anyone who wants to learn more about women's contributions in WWII.

Propaganda Girls follows four women as they work for the OSS during World War II and gives them the long awaited appreciation they deserve. Often passed over for promotions simply because they were women, they risked their lives serving their country creating black propaganda designed to break the spirit and morale of the Axis soldiers. It was fascinating to hear how they questioned POWs to get information to help them understand what was happening on the enemy front lines and all of the steps they took to manufacture and distribute their pamphlets and information. A family friend fondly remembered meeting Marlene Dietrich during her morale boosting tours, so I especially enjoyed her sections and learning more about why she was so passionate about helping the Allied cause. The book is easy to read is a fascinating read for anyone who is interested in hearing more about how women helped the Allied forces win World War II.
Many thanks to St. Martin's Press and Netgalley for the ARC.

Real Rating: 4.25* of five

<b>The Publisher Says: The incredible untold story of four women who helped win WWII by generating a wave of black propaganda.</b>

Betty MacDonald was a 28-year-old reporter from Hawaii. Zuzka Lauwers grew up in a tiny Czechoslovakian village and knew five languages by the time she was 21. Jane Smith-Hutton was the wife of a naval attaché living in Tokyo. Marlene Dietrich, the German-American actress and singer, was of course one of the biggest stars of the 20th century. These four women, each fascinating in her own right, together contributed to one of the most covert and successful military campaigns in WWII.

As members of the OSS, their task was to create a secret brand of propaganda produced with the sole aim to break the morale of Axis soldiers. Working in the European theater, across enemy lines in occupied China, and in Washington, D.C., Betty, Zuzka, Jane, and Marlene forged letters and “official” military orders, wrote and produced entire newspapers, scripted radio broadcasts and songs, and even developed rumors for undercover spies and double agents to spread to the enemy. And outside of a small group of spies, no one knew they existed. Until now.

In <i>Propaganda Girls</i>, bestselling author Lisa Rogak brings to vivid life the incredible true story of four unsung heroes, whose spellbinding achievements would change the course of history.

<b>I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA NETGALLEY. THANK YOU.

My Review</b>: I think most of us know who Marlene Dietrich was; I thought <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betty_MacDonald">Betty MacDonald</a> was the author of <i>The Egg & I</i>, but that's not the case; none of the others caused even a flicker of recognition.

This, my fellow Murrikans, is not an accident. As covert-operations experts, it was never likely that the four women here...with one obvious exception...would become household names. Even Dietrich's wartime service, though, is very much downplayed and undercredited in biographies of her remarkable life. The others...well...I know we'll all clutch our collective pearls when we learn that they were passed over for promotions given to men they trained. Shocking, no?

Lisa Rogak has set out to tell the details, insofar as available, of the women whose lives were offered in service during a huge global war. The aftermath was predictably enough not glorious. The women are, I'm afraid, not part of the broader public record; that makes keeping track of them in this narrative of their covert activities a matter of noting names. No archive of their careers exists (<i>pace</i> Marlene), so we have little personality development. From divergent beginnings, they converge on a bored, rebellious attitude they are all entitled to. It just does little to keep their characters separate in one's mind. It doesn't help my sense of them as people that, based on the title, I was expecting more or less a Bletchley Park kind of ethos for them to operate together, as more or less a unit, to develop. Nothing could be further from the truth...they barely ever crossed paths and were not in the same kind of circumstances within the propaganda operation.

It's not so much a flaw in my mind as an inevitable consequence of the manner in which these women were treated as fungible, expendable units where their male colleagues were noticed and promoted...often on the backs of the women's efforts. The effect of propaganda on one's enemies is, obviously, a subject of great national importance in today's online world. I shudder to think what a popular entertainer of Dietrich's stature could do with social media at her command. Any one of these rumormongers, these evidence-fakers, these insiders-turned-enemies could do astonishing amounts of damage given free rein on the internet.

Heaven knows their descendants are. We ignore the ways and means of the past at our peril. We're still seeing these techniques used, as refined, against us now.

Why I couldn't reach a fifth star was really down to niggles, like the sort-of-faceless grievance ball the women turned into as I read along. It wasn't avoidable, I understand that we're dealing with people who didn't leave huge divots in the lawn of History here. It was, however, a distraction, so that's why this well-written, researched, and obviously very personally meaningful to the author story doesn't get its optimal five full stars.

Thank you to the publisher for providing a free preview copy of Propaganda Girls!

I’m a WWII and media history girlie, so this topic was definitely up my alley. I enjoyed the stories of the four women and how they each ended up in such a unique position with the OSS. Unfortunately the writing fell a bit flat for me, and there wasn’t a driving thesis to pull all the narrative together; instead it just seemed like a recitation of history (interesting though that history may be!!).

I enjoyed reading Propaganda Girls by Lisa Rogak. I found the story to be interesting and easy to read. I could tell that the author did her research. I was happy to discover that the book was not dry. The book is told from four women’s point-of-view who served in the OSS during World War II. The work that Betty MacDonald, Zuzka Lauwers, Jane Smith-Hutton, and Marlene Dietrich did to aid the war effort was fascinating. They worked to undermine the morale of Axis soldiers. It is shame that they did not receive the same pay, rank, or acknowledgement as men. Jane, Betty, and Zuzka’s contributions were just as important as Marlene Dietrich’s. The women were clever, and they came up with unique ideas. Those curious about inimitable jobs women did during World War II will enjoy Propaganda Girls.