The Code Book: The Science of Secrecy from Ancient Egypt to Quantum Cryptography
by Simon Singh
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Book Summary Information
Author: Simon SinghEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 2000-08-29
ISBN: 0385495323
Number of pages: 432
Publisher: Anchor
Book Reviews of The Code Book: The Science of Secrecy from Ancient Egypt to Quantum Cryptography
Book Review: Not an outstanding addition to the field, but good in places
Summary: 2 Stars
There are a fair number of popularisations of the science of cryptology. This is not one of the best, although it does provide a basic introduction to the subject. The standard work in this category, as Singh points out, is David Kahn's "The Codebreakers" (this was recently updated but is a still quite out of date). Where "The Code Book" is very good is in highlighting recently uncovered information, notably the fact that public-key cryptography had been developed by Cocks and Ellis prior to Diffie and Hellman. The treatment of quantum cryptography is also quite useful, and I found the discussion of the work of Navajo native Americans during WWII interesting.My recommendation would be to buy Kahn's book, read and digest it to get a feel for the subject, and then plunge into the tremendously deep and useful resources of cryptology on the web.
This reviewer would have given the book three stars, but there is no mention in the bibliography of THE STANDARD work in this field, namely Bruce Schneier's magnificent "Applied Cryptography", now in its second edition. The author of "The Code Book" is either ignorant of it, does not appreciate its significance or chooses to omit it for other reasons. This is unforgivable: minus one star.
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