In The Hello Girls, historian Elizabeth Cobbs tells the extraordinary story of 223 women sent to France in 1918 by the U.S. Army Signal Corps to help win World War I. Requested by General John Pershing, these skilled telephone operators—known as the “Hello Girls”—became America’s first women soldiers, keeping vital communications running under fire while the nation at home debated women’s right to vote.

Serving near the front lines, they endured bombardment, skepticism, and admiration from male soldiers, proving indispensable to the war effort. Yet when they returned home in 1920, the Army denied them veterans’ benefits, sparking a sixty-year fight for recognition that finally ended in victory in 1979.

Elizabeth Cobbs will virtually join us to discuss the book and the remarkable legacy of the Hello Girls, whose service reshaped both military history and the struggle for women’s equality.

Registration Encouraged.

This event will be moderated by Catherine Bourgin & Clelia Walters, members of the Freedom Hill Chapter, NSDAR (Daughters of the American Revolution)

About the Author

Award-winning historian Elizabeth Cobbs brings fresh, unexpected perspectives to our understanding of the past and present. Building upon worldwide archival research and her own extraordinary life experiences, Elizabeth writes best selling  fiction and non-fiction that is both scholarly and witty. Her path-breaking books, articles, and documentary films reveal a world that is as intriguing and surprising as it is real.

Elizabeth earned her Ph.D. in American history at Stanford University. She is currently an Emerita Professor at San Diego State University. Her books have won four literary prizes, two for American history and two for fiction, and she has won four prizes for documentary filmmaking. Elizabeth has been a Fulbright scholar in Ireland and a Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, D.C. She has served on the Historical Advisory Committee of the U.S. State Department and on the jury for the Pulitzer Prize in History.