Battle of wits
by Stephen Budiansky · first published 2000
83% recommend17% neutral
Why HN recommends it
Well-written history of WW2 Enigma cryptanalysis that widens the story beyond Turing to the varied cast of people and the Bombe's role; suits readers wanting a broad, readable account of codebreaking.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
A million pages of new World War II codebreaking records have been released by the U.S. Army and Navy and the British government over the last five years. Now, Battle of Wits presents the history of the war that these documents reveal. From the battle of Midway until the last German code was broken in January 1945, this is an astonishing epic of a war that was won not simply by brute strength but also by reading the enemy's intentions. The revelations of Stephen Budiansky's dramatic history include how Britain tried to manipulate the American codebreakers and monopolize German Enigma code c
Affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
Budiansky is a good writer: his "Battle of Wits" about WW2 Enigma cryptanalysis is worth reading, even though it is mostly rehashed from other sources. I'll probably try to check out this Gödel biography, though the mental illness angle sounds pretty…
on “Journey to the Edge of Reason: The life of Kurt Gödel” ↗Anyone who wants more of a history of WW2 crypto that extends the cast of characters beyond Turing (and the cast was significant and varied) should read "Battle of Wits" (http://www.amazon.com/dp/0743217349) the historian who wrote it wrote it after a large NSA declassification in 1996. What's even more extreme about the Polish codebreakers, a story you would read in…
on “Polish codebreakers 'cracked Enigma before Alan Turing'” ↗Another factor (according to the excellent Battle of Wits by Budiansky) was that the Germans were overconfident that Enigma was unbreakable. Turned out their confidence in the hard computation that would need to be done to decode Enigma was wrong.
on “How is NSA breaking so much crypto? (2015)” ↗To answer that would take an entire book! One book you might try is "Battle of Wits" by Stephen Budiansky, published in 2000 by The Free Press. ISBN: 0-684-85932-7 There was never a single break through at Bletchley. The Bombe machines (there were eventually many of them) were useful,…
on “Algorithms tutorial series for beginners” ↗For anyone interested in this stuff - “Battle of Wits” is a great book about cryptanalysis in WW2.
on “SIGSALY: Churchill's top secret hotline to the president” ↗So this week I've been reading Battle of Wits: The Complete Story of Codebreaking in World War II by Stephen Budiansky. The US intelligence community has a long history of going right to the communication source and obtaining raw data from public…
on “U.S. Opposes Tech Companies’ Requests to Disclose Surveillance” ↗…every electronic device, if it isn't p'wned, it's just by the blessings of laziness or disinterest. After having read about the scale upon which the US pursued cryptography during the Second World War in Battle of Wits: The Complete Story of Codebreaking in World War II by Stephen Budiansky, I'm not betting on either.
on “Mysterious Mac and PC malware that jumps airgaps?” ↗