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Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com Review
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.
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
From Publishers Weekly
In an enthralling tour de force of popular explication, Singh, author of the bestselling Fermat's Enigma, explores the impact of cryptographyAthe creation and cracking of coded messagesAon history and society. Some of his examples are familiar, notably the Allies' decryption of the Nazis' Enigma machine during WWII; less well-known is the crucial role of Queen Elizabeth's code breakers in deciphering Mary, Queen of Scots' incriminating missives to her fellow conspirators plotting to assassinate Elizabeth, which led to Mary's beheading in 1587. Singh celebrates a group of unsung heroes of WWII, the Navajo "code talkers," Native American Marine radio operators who, using a coded version of their native language, played a vital role in defeating the Japanese in the Pacific. He also elucidates the intimate links between codes or ciphers and the development of the telegraph, radio, computers and the Internet. As he ranges from Julius Caesar's secret military writing to coded diplomatic messages in feuding Renaissance Italy city-states, from the decipherment of the Rosetta Stone to the ingenuity of modern security experts battling cyber-criminals and cyber-terrorists, Singh clarifies the techniques and tricks of code makers and code breakers alike. He lightens the sometimes technical load with photos, political cartoons, charts, code grids and reproductions of historic documents. He closes with a fascinating look at cryptanalysts' planned and futuristic tools, including the "one-time pad," a seemingly unbreakable form of encryption. In Singh's expert hands, cryptography decodes as an awe-inspiring and mind-expanding story of scientific breakthrough and high drama. Agent, Patrick Walsh. (Oct.) FYI: The book includes a "Cipher Challenge," offering a $15,000 reward to the first person to crack that code.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Inside This Book
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First Sentence:
On the morning of Saturday, October 15, 1586, Queen Mary entered the crowded courtroom at Fotheringhay Castle. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
analytical engine, scrambler orientations, scrambler settings, scrambler disk, scrambler rotates, chiffre indéchiffrable, resulting ciphertext letter, first scrambler, three scramblers, second scrambler, plugboard cables, plugboard settings, cipher alphabet, plain alphabet, monoalphabetic substitution cipher, new scramblers, monoalphabetic cipher, homophonic cipher, quantum money, onetime pad cipher, wrong detector, loose lens, cipher disk, asymmetric cipher, commonest letters Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
The Code Book, Bletchley Park, Cracking the Enigma, The Language Barrier, Quantum Leap, First World War, The Mechanization of Secrecy, Mary Queen of Scots, Pretty Good Privacy, Information Age, Sir Arthur, Chartley Hall, Alan Turing, Second World War, Data Security, Queen Elizabeth, Whitfield Diffie, Naval Enigma, German Enigma, Great Cipher, Rosetta Stone, James Ellis, Iron Mask, Biuro Szyfrów, German Ambassador New!
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Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
On the morning of Saturday, October 15, 1586, Queen Mary entered the crowded courtroom at Fotheringhay Castle. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
analytical engine, scrambler orientations, scrambler settings, scrambler disk, scrambler rotates, chiffre indéchiffrable, resulting ciphertext letter, first scrambler, three scramblers, second scrambler, plugboard cables, plugboard settings, cipher alphabet, plain alphabet, monoalphabetic substitution cipher, new scramblers, monoalphabetic cipher, homophonic cipher, quantum money, onetime pad cipher, wrong detector, loose lens, cipher disk, asymmetric cipher, commonest letters Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
The Code Book, Bletchley Park, Cracking the Enigma, The Language Barrier, Quantum Leap, First World War, The Mechanization of Secrecy, Mary Queen of Scots, Pretty Good Privacy, Information Age, Sir Arthur, Chartley Hall, Alan Turing, Second World War, Data Security, Queen Elizabeth, Whitfield Diffie, Naval Enigma, German Enigma, Great Cipher, Rosetta Stone, James Ellis, Iron Mask, Biuro Szyfrów, German Ambassador New!
Books on Related Topics | Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Citations (learn more)
This book cites 33
books:
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22
books
cite this book:
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- American Black Chamber (Bluejacket Books) by Herbert O. Yardley on page 93, page 138, and Back Matter
- The Gold-Bug by Edgar Allan Poe on page 81, page 96, and Back Matter
- The Man In The Iron Mask (Great Illustrated Classics) by Alexandre Dumas on page 57, and page 58
- The Code Book: How to Make It, Break It, Hack It, Crack It by Simon Singh in Front Matter (1), and Front Matter (2)
- The Man in the Iron Mask (Oxford World's Classics) by Alexandre Dumas père on page 57, and page 58
See all 33 books this book cites
- Secrets of the Code: The Unauthorized Guide to the Mysteries Behind The Da Vinci Code by Dan Burstein on page 205, and Back Matter
- Tactical Communications for the Digitized Battlefield by Michael J. Ryan on page 82
- Object-Oriented Analysis and Design: Understanding System Development with UML 2.0 by Mike O'Docherty in Back Matter
- Mathematical Ciphers: From Caesar to RSA (Mathematical World) by Anne L. Young in Back Matter
- Electronic Warfare for the Digitized Battlefield by Michael R. Frater on page 96
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89% buy the item featured on this page: The Code Book: The Science of Secrecy from Ancient Egypt to Quantum Cryptography $10.85 |
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4% buy Fermat's Enigma: The Epic Quest to Solve the World's Greatest Mathematical Problem $10.17 |
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3% buy Big Bang: The Origin of the Universe (P.S.) $12.47 |
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2% buy Applied Cryptography: Protocols, Algorithms, and Source Code in C, Second Edition $37.80 |
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