The Code Book: The Science of Secrecy from Ancient Egypt to Quantum Cryptography
In his first book since the bestselling Fermat's Enigma, Simon Singh offers the first sweeping history of encryption, tracing its evolution and revealing the dramatic effects codes have had on wars, nations, and individual lives. From Mary, Queen of Scots, trapped by her own code, to the Navajo Code Talkers who helped the Allies win World War II, to the incredible (and incredibly simple) logisitical breakthrough that made Internet commerce secure, The Code Book tells the story of the most powerful intellectual weapon ever known: secrecy.
Throughout the text are clear technical and mathematical explanations, and portraits of the remarkable personalities who wrote and broke the world's most difficult codes. Accessible, compelling, and remarkably far-reaching, this book will forever alter your view of history and what drives it.??It will also make yo wonder how private that e-mail you just sent really is.
People love secrets. Ever since the first word was written, humans have sent coded messages to each other. In The Code Book, Simon Singh, author of the bestselling Fermat's Enigma, offers a peek into the world of cryptography and codes, from ancient texts through computer encryption. Singh's compelling history is woven through with stories of how codes and ciphers have played a vital role in warfare, politics, and royal intrigue. The major theme of The Code Book is what Singh calls "the ongoing evolutionary battle between codemakers and codebreakers," never more clear than in the chapters devoted to World War II. Cryptography came of age during that conflict, as secret communications became critical to both sides' success.
Confronted with the prospect of defeat, the Allied cryptanalysts had worked night and day to penetrate German ciphers. It would appear that fear was the main driving force, and that adversity is one of the foundations of successful codebreaking.
In the information age, the fear that drives cryptographic improvements is both capitalistic and libertarian--corporations need encryption to ensure that their secrets don't fall into the hands of competitors and regulators, and ordinary people need encryption to keep their everyday communications private in a free society. Similarly, the battles for greater decryption power come from said competitors and governments wary of insurrection.
The Code Book is an excellent primer for those wishing to understand how the human need for privacy has manifested itself through cryptography. Singh's accessible style and clear explanations of complex algorithms cut through the arcane mathematical details without oversimplifying. --Therese Littleton
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246 Reviews
| From: Amazon Posted: Jun 20, 2008 Type: User Review |
Excellent reading on evolution of cryptography
Simon Singh books usually hold you from the first page and till the end. "The code book" is very well written and very informative. You will see how it's started and where cryptography goes, but even more interesting part of history of...
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 5.00/5 |
| From: Amazon Posted: Jun 14, 2008 Type: User Review |
Excellent
Nutshell review - This is an excellent book covering the history of cryptography up to present day and into the near future. Very well written, easy to understand and worth reading by any layperson interested in the topic.
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5.00/5 |
| From: Amazon Posted: May 23, 2008 Type: User Review |
Solve any Enigma
If you want to know about codes, secrets, cryptography and cryptanalysis then this is the book. Simon Singh presents the history of codes in a clear and simple way. Without the mathematics to disturb the flow of the story, you enjoy plots,...
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5.00/5 |
| From: Amazon Posted: Apr 11, 2008 Type: User Review |
excellent
great book regarding the history of cryptography. The only way to truly understand anything is c the history of it's introduction
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5.00/5 |
| From: Amazon Posted: Apr 07, 2008 Type: User Review |
The Code Book - Understandable, Fun, Engaging
For a book on cryptology from a historical perspective it's really hard to believe it would be as entertaining as Singh makes it. Using his skill as an author he weaves history, technology, and methods of encryption together to explain topics that...
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5.00/5 |
| From: Amazon Posted: Apr 01, 2008 Type: User Review |
you will like it
Simon Singh does a very clever thing. He takes comlex topics and makes them understandable without dumming down the science or math.
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 4.00/5 |
| From: Amazon Posted: Mar 03, 2008 Type: User Review |
Excellent!!!
If you have never read a Simon Singh book, it's time to begin now! While most Singh books can seem a bit boring when you read the synopsis (can a book about codes really be interesting??), this is not the case. He has a wonderfull way of...
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5.00/5 |
| From: Amazon Posted: Jan 13, 2008 Type: User Review |
a pleasant reading suitable to all kind of public
This is a wonderful book, well written, suitable to both curious reader and professional. It is suitable to the curious reader because all the explanations are very well written such that its not so hard to follow the flow of ideas. And it is...
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5.00/5 |
| From: Amazon Posted: Nov 06, 2007 Type: User Review |
Excellent Book on the History of Codes
"The Code Book" is a highly readable, engaging and informative book on cryptology (the science of code-making and code-breaking). The book covers the evolution of secrecy across time and addresses the current state of this science.
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5.00/5 |
| From: Amazon Posted: Sep 25, 2007 Type: User Review |
The Code Book
I found it interesting and well written. Relize Simon is a Brit, so slightly a different type of sentence structure. I found sometimes that I just could not put the book down. I found out about the book from MAA. It's a college Math Mag playing...
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5.00/5 |
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