The Code Book: The Science of Secrecy From Ancient Egypt to Quantum Cryptography
Author: Simon Singh
Recommended Reading: Yeah!
Pages: 300+
In his first book since the bestselling Fermat's Enigma, Simon Singh offers the first sweeping history of encryption, tracing it's 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) logistical 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 fo 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 you wonder how private that e-mail you just sent really is.
This captivating novel is one of the few non-fiction books I've read cover to cover (though I've been meaning to rectify that for a while). It's a truly amazing look at the sometimes secret history of cryptography. Cryptography is more relevant today than ever for our security especially online, though developments in this science are often closely guarded by top government researchers who have had the most impact on it's development.
Singh gives us a look into the brilliant minds and lives that contributed to the most important developments in cryptography while peppering in simple but thorough explanations of how these ciphers work as well as explaining the drawbacks of each. I seriously had a hard time putting this book down, though I sometimes found the layout of of the charts and tables to be somewhat irritating. (Some of these charts were put in the middle of paragraphs so that I would have to continue onto the next page to finish reading it, then have to flip back to examine the corresponding chart.)
Another (minor) issue I had was the subtitle of this book which implies that Singh explains cryptography as it existed since Ancient Egypt. In fact Singh begins talking about the history of ciphers as they existed since around the 1500's, starting with the story of Mary Queen of Scott's whose life was hinged upon the effectiveness of a cipher. Singh doesn't bring up Ancient Egypt until about the fifth chapter and then he doesn't talk about the ciphers and cryptography methods that existed then, but rather the deciphering of the Ancient Egyptian language which was lost to us for a long time.
But those are only minor annoyances which don't retract from the quality of the novel as a whole. In fact there are some bonus materials that Singh includes in the book. Such as the cipher challenge (which includes ten ciphers for the reader to test their own skills and what they've learned if they're interested). There are also appendices and a glossary to give further explanations of different ciphering methods and vocabulary. And a further reading list, if you're looking to delve into learning more about cryptography.
All in all I would highly recommend this novel to everyone.
