Synopses & Reviews
The magnificent, unrivaled history of codes and ciphersand#8212;how they're made, how they're broken, and the many and fascinating roles they've played since the dawn of civilization in war, business, diplomacy, and espionageand#8212;updated with a new chapter on computer cryptography and the Ultra secret.andlt;BRandgt;andlt;BRandgt;Man has created codes to keep secrets and has broken codes to learn those secrets since the time of the Pharaohs. For 4,000 years, fierce battles have been waged between codemakers and codebreakers, and the story of these battles is civilization's secret history, the hidden account of how wars were won and lost, diplomatic intrigues foiled, business secrets stolen, governments ruined, computers hacked. From the XYZ Affair to the Dreyfus Affair, from the Gallic War to the Persian Gulf, from Druidic runes and the kaballah to outer space, from the Zimmermann telegram to Enigma to the Manhattan Project, codebreaking has shaped the course of human events to an extent beyond any easy reckoning. Once a government monopoly, cryptology today touches everybody. It secures the Internet, keeps e-mail private, maintains the integrity of cash machine transactions, and scrambles TV signals on unpaid-for channels. David Kahn's andlt;iandgt;The Codebreakersandlt;/iandgt; takes the measure of what codes and codebreaking have meant in human history in a single comprehensive account, astonishing in its scope and enthralling in its execution. Hailed upon first publication as a book likely to become the definitive work of its kind, andlt;iandgt;The Codebreakersandlt;/iandgt; has more than lived up to that prediction: it remains unsurpassed. With a brilliant new chapter that makes use of previously classified documents to bring the book thoroughly up to date, and to explore the myriad ways computer codes and their hackers are changing all of our lives, andlt;iandgt;The Codebreakersandlt;/iandgt; is the skeleton key to a thousand thrilling true stories of intrigue, mystery, and adventure. It is a masterpiece of the historian's art.
Review
"A literary blockbuster...for many evenings of gripping reading, no better choice can be made than this book." The Christian Science Monitor
Review
"Perhaps the best and most complete account of cryptography yet published." Time
Description
Includes bibliographical references (p. 985-987) and index.
About the Author
David Kahn,andlt;/Bandgt; a recently visiting historian at the National Security Agency, is the world's leading expert on the history of cryptology, and the author of andlt;Iandgt;Hitler's Spies, Seizing the Enigma,andlt;/Iandgt; and andlt;Iandgt;Kahn on Codes,andlt;/Iandgt; as well as articles in numerous popular and technical journals. He holds a Ph.D. in Modern History from Oxford. An editor at andlt;Iandgt;Newsday,andlt;/Iandgt; he lives in Great Neck, New York.
Table of Contents
andlt;BRandgt;andlt;Bandgt;CONTENTSandlt;/Bandgt;andlt;BRandgt;andlt;BRandgt;Preface to the Revised Editionandlt;BRandgt;andlt;BRandgt;Prefaceandlt;BRandgt;andlt;BRandgt;A Few Wordsandlt;BRandgt;andlt;BRandgt;1. One Day of Magicandlt;BRandgt;andlt;BRandgt;THE PAGENT OF CRYPTOLOGYandlt;BRandgt;andlt;BRandgt;2. The First 3,000 Yearsandlt;BRandgt;andlt;BRandgt;3. The Rise of the Westandlt;BRandgt;andlt;BRandgt;4. On the Origin of a Speciesandlt;BRandgt;andlt;BRandgt;5. The Era of the Black Chambersandlt;BRandgt;andlt;BRandgt;6. The Contribution of the Dilettantesandlt;BRandgt;andlt;BRandgt;7. Crises of the Unionandlt;BRandgt;andlt;BRandgt;8. The Professor, the Soldier, and the Man on Devil's Islandandlt;BRandgt;andlt;BRandgt;9. Room 40andlt;BRandgt;andlt;BRandgt;10. A War of Intercepts: Iandlt;BRandgt;andlt;BRandgt;11. A War of Intercepts: IIandlt;BRandgt;andlt;BRandgt;12. Two Americansandlt;BRandgt;andlt;BRandgt;13. Secrecy for Saleandlt;BRandgt;andlt;BRandgt;14. Duel in the Ether: The Axisandlt;BRandgt;andlt;BRandgt;15. Duel in the Ether: Neutrals and Alliesandlt;BRandgt;andlt;BRandgt;16. Censors, Scramblers, and Spiesandlt;BRandgt;andlt;BRandgt;17. The Scrutable Orientalsandlt;BRandgt;andlt;BRandgt;18. Russkaya Kriptologiya ("Russian Cryptology")andlt;BRandgt;andlt;BRandgt;19. N.S.A.andlt;BRandgt;andlt;BRandgt;SIDESHOWSandlt;BRandgt;andlt;BRandgt;20. The Anatomy of Cryptologyandlt;BRandgt;andlt;BRandgt;21. Heterogeneous Impulsesandlt;BRandgt;andlt;BRandgt;22. Rumrunners, Businessmen, and Makers of Non-secret Codesandlt;BRandgt;andlt;BRandgt;23. Ciphers in the Past Tenseandlt;BRandgt;andlt;BRandgt;24. The Pathology of Cryptologyandlt;BRandgt;andlt;BRandgt;PARACRYPTOLOGYandlt;BRandgt;andlt;BRandgt;25. Ancestral Voicesandlt;BRandgt;andlt;BRandgt;26. Messages from Outer Spaceandlt;BRandgt;andlt;BRandgt;THE NEW CRYPTOLOGYandlt;BRandgt;andlt;BRandgt;27. Cryptology Goes Publicandlt;BRandgt;andlt;BRandgt;Bibliographyandlt;BRandgt;andlt;BRandgt;Notes to Textandlt;BRandgt;andlt;BRandgt;Acknowledgmentsandlt;BRandgt;andlt;BRandgt;Notes to Illustrationsandlt;BRandgt;andlt;BRandgt;Index