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The book is called The Code Book and
it chronicles the history of codes, ciphers, and cipher
analysis by introducing the most famous ciphers throughout
history and both showing how they work and how to break
them. Now I know this sounds all geeky and stuff but it
really is interesting reading because the author gives real
life historical accounts and he explains the techniques
in such simple terms that it’s actually easy to follow!
I found myself enthralled and quickly waded through the
book; an unusual event for me, Capt Poky-Reader. I read
a variety of books and this math/logic/history piece is
a nice break from the military ones I normally concentrated
on. I actually felt my head getting heavier. |
Here's the official overview of the book:
The Secret History of Codes and Code Breaking
Ever since humans began writing, they have been communicating
in code. This obsession with secrecy has had dramatic effects
on the outcome of wars, monarchies and individual lives.
With clear mathematical, linguistic and technological
demonstrations of many of the codes, as well as illustrations
of some of the remarkable personalities behind them - many courageous,
some villainous - The Code Book traces the fascinating
development of codes and code-breaking from military espionage
in Ancient Greece to modern computer ciphers, to reveal how
the remarkable science of cryptography has often changed the
course of history.
Amongst many extraordinary examples, Simon Singh relates
in detail the story of Mary, Queen of Scots, trapped by her
own code and put to death by Elizabeth I; the strange history
of the Beale Ciphers, describing the hidden location of a fortune
in gold, buried somewhere in Virginia in the nineteenth century
and still not found; the monumental efforts in code-making and
code-breaking that influenced the outcomes of the First and
Second World Wars.
Now, with the Information Age bringing the possibility
of a truly unbreakable code ever nearer, and cryptography one
of the major debates of our times, Singh investigates the challenge
that technology has brought to personal privacy today.
Dramatic, compelling and remarkably far-reaching, The
Code Book will forever alter your view of history, what
drives it and how private your last e-mail really was.
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