The Code Book
The Science of Secrecy from Ancient Egypt to Quantum Cryptography
by Simon Singh · first published 1999
81% recommend18% neutral1% critical
Why HN recommends it
Entertaining, accessible history of ciphers from ancient times to quantum cryptography, with anecdotes, Enigma and Turing chapters, and a gentle intro to RSA and modular arithmetic. Suits curious general readers.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
In his first book since the bestselling Fermat's Enigma, Simon Singh offers the first sweeping history of encryption, tracing its 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) logisitical 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 mathema
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Those interested in cryptology and coding theory should definitely consider "The Code Book" by Simon Singh. It's a great account of how cryptology was used throughout history.
on “The Alice and Bob After Dinner Speech (1984)” ↗I am not a cryptographer but I do work in security and The Code Book by Simon Singh is an excellent history of the history of cryptography/cryptanalysis presented as periods through history where the pendulum swung between giving the edge to the code makers or breakers.…
on “Ask HN: Which book can attract anyone towards your field of study?” ↗I highly, highly recommend "The Code Book" by Simon Singh if you're interested in cryptography. It has a chapter on Bletchley Park and tells the stories of several of its cryptographers, including Alan Turing and the Enigma cipher.
on “Rare Second World War Footage of Bletchley Park Emerges” ↗…there are many other collections. I also recommend cryptography stuff. David Kahn's The Codebreakers is not really a math book, but it is awesome and it stars mathematicians, as does Simon Singh's The Code Book. You could read Schneier's Applied Cryptography. This is HN, so I would be remiss if I didn't point out that you can learn a lot of fun and useful math by reading SICP, Knuth, or any good algorithms…
on “Ask HN: Good books on mathematics for somebody who's only taken high school math?” ↗The history of public key encryption, and of encryption in general is covered pretty well in this book: http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Code-Book-History-Code-breaking/...
on “How Two Men Unlocked Modern Encryption” ↗…about SQL and covers each part as it relates to the 4 major SQL databases (Oracle, SQL Server, Postgres, MySQL) - Also has an online version: http://use-the-index-luke.com/sql/table-of-contents The Code Book - Simon Singh - It's just a good read that covers cryptography and message hiding throughout history. Probably a solid book for somebody around high school age.
on “Ask HN: What language-agnostic programming books should I read?” ↗…of Mathematics by Keith Devlin: Sparked a renewed interest in mathematics through historical narratives of the development of our number systems, mathematicians and numerous mathematical topics. The Code Book by Simon Singh: Kicked off my historical and professional interest in cryptography and keeping secrets. Flow by Mihaly Csikzentmihalyi: Showed me how to make the best use of every minute, especially…
on “Ask HN: Life Changing Books?” ↗The Code Book by Simon Singh[1]. The book is very old, first published in 1999, but I did not know about it till my colleague brought it to work recently. The following stories are very interesting and read as detective…
on “Ask HN: Any interesting books you have read lately?” ↗"The Code Book: The Science of Secrecy from Ancient Egypt to Quantum Cryptography" http://www.amazon.com/The-Code-Book-Science-Cryptography/dp/... has a chapter about the Enigma. This book is easy to read as a nice…
on “An Enigma cipher machine implemented in an Excel spreadsheet by a non-programmer” ↗(blogger) if you haven't read The Code Book by Simon Singh (as I recommended), you'll be surprisingly pleased by its depth. Everyone loves it. It was the book that inspired that spreadsheet; it clearly contains enough info to go and try and implement…
on “An Enigma cipher machine implemented in an Excel spreadsheet by a non-programmer” ↗…Even having understood for years how computers work in principal, nothing quite put it together for me like this book. There's a similarly great book on the history/methods of cryptography called "The Code Book" by Simon Singh that I recommend too - http://www.amazon.com/The-Code-Book-Science-Cryptography/dp/... It's great because it traces the history but also walks you through how the cyphers actually worked,…
on “Ask HN: Summer reading” ↗Simon Singh's "The Code Book" is a good overview and well written. http://www.amazon.com/The-Code-Book-Science-Cryptography/dp/...
on “Can you crack a code?” ↗For everyone feeling cheated by Malcolm Gladwell, there is relief in sight! Buy books by Simon Singh e.g. The Code Book and Fermat's Last Theorem; after his court tangle with homeopathy he needs all the royalties he can get!
on “Should we stop believing Malcolm Gladwell?” ↗"The Code Book", by Simon Singh, would be a good companion read. It covers much of the above, and is both compelling and well-written. Edit: Fixed from "Code" to "The Code Book". Although "Code" (Charles Petzold),…
on “Crypto 101” ↗These recommendations are spot on. As so much of Alan's posthumous fame is for cracking the naval enigma in WW2, I'd recommend starting out by first reading "The Code Book" by Simon Singh for general background. Personally I find Alan's work on ACE the most fascinating. Sadly I can't really find much about it beyond Hodge's biography. Anyone got any good leads re ACE?
on “Alan Turing's notebook sold for $1M” ↗