The Codebreakers: The Comprehensive History of Secret Communication from Ancient Times to the Internet

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"Few false ideas have more firmly gripped the minds of so many intelligent men than the one that, if they just tried, they could invent a cipher that no one could break," writes David Kahn in this massive (almost 1,200 pages) volume. Most of The Codebreakers focuses on the 20th century, especially World War II. But its reach is long. Kahn traces cryptology's origins to the advent of writing. It seems that as soon as people learned how to record their thoughts, they tried to figure out ways of keeping them hidden. Kahn covers everything from the theory of ciphering to the search for "messages" from outer space. He concludes with a few thoughts about encryption on the Internet.

Book Description

The magnificent, unrivaled history of codes and ciphers -- 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 espionage -- updated with a new chapter on computer cryptography and the Ultra secret.

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 The Codebreakers 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, The Codebreakers 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, The Codebreakers is the skeleton key to a thousand thrilling true stories of intrigue, mystery, and adventure. It is a masterpiece of the historian's art.

Customer Reviews:

Set the Bar.......2006-05-10

This is an astonising piece of work. It came out just when books on some previously hidden areas of WWII intelligence such as the Double Cross counterintelligence effort and the MAGIC Sigint system were starting to appear in print. Given that SIGINT/COMINT/ELINT were/are among the closest held areas of intelligence, what the author managed to do at that time is nothing short of breathtaking. From outlining what codes and cyphers are and what makes them difficult to read, to a chapter and verse depiction of the practical results of wartime codebreaking, the author covers the waterfront. Has not been outdone to date. "The Puzzle Palace", for example, is strictly junior varsity compared to Kahn's work. This book belongs in the library of every student of military affairs, intelligence and foreign affairs.

Outstanding History of Cryptography up to 1965.......2006-03-25

This massive, exhaustively-researched book by David Kahn examines the HISTORY of cryptography from the dawn of civilization to the darkness of the Cold War. He starts an introductory bow to capture readers' attention with the Magic story (American decryption of Japanese WWII codes). Then, Kahn traces the cryptologic developments from the early most rudimentary monalphabetic substitution systems to polyalphabetics, codes, transposition ciphers, enciphering devices (e.g. checkerboards, grille ciphers, one-time pads, one-time tapes, ciphering cylinders, voice modulators, etc.), deciphering systems, and all the governmental organizations devoted to enciphering and deciphering activities.

His investigations cover Babylonian cuneiform, Roman cipher systems (e.g. the famed Caesar cipher), an entire host of Renaissance cryptographers and systems, Englightenment-era black chambers, British amateur contributions (e.g. Playfair cipher), American Civil War transposition systems, telegraphic codes, French military ciphers, and the communication cipher used during the Dreyfus affair.

The book then devotes about 2/3 of the book to modern cryptographic systems used from 1914 to 1965 (the book was published in 1967). Some of the WWI-era subjects treated in this section are Britain's WWI Room 40, the unusual ADFGVX German cipher, WWI battlefield cipher and code systems. Between the wars, Kahn describes the American Black Chamber, the advent of rotor machines (e.g. Engima, Hagelin, Hebern), the rise of mathematical/statistical analysis, the US Magic decryption program, the extraordinarily successful Soviet cipher systems, and quite a thorough examination of all WWII-era cryptographic activities.

The last few chapters of the book are devoted to describing the NSA, the chimeric search for Shakespearean hidden messages, pigpen ciphers, Prohibition-era rumrunners, numbers runners, visual telegraphy, the decryption of Linear B/hieroglyphics, potential SETI coding systems, and a very short brief on DES.

Bar none, this is the one book to own on cryptographic history up to 1965. (This is not a cryptology textbook, however.) Kahn's writing style and subjects are always engaging and packed full with comprehensive information. Kahn reveals that almost every cipher system ever invented (with the significant exception of one-time pads/tapes) has been broken - most surprisingly quickly. This is a lesson that any organization using radio (including mobil phones) and public facilities (e.g. internet, PSTN) to communicate definitely ought to realize. This is a must read for anyone interested in cryptologic history. Outstanding!

For curious on criptography history.......2006-03-17

Big book. Great, as expected. The very first part of the book seems quite separated from the rest. It appears as a long introduction, probably too much detailed. The rest of the book is written in clean english understandable also for non mother tongue readers.

Required reading.......2005-10-14

Kahn's inspired account of codebreaking and cryptanalysis from ancient to modern is a must read for anybody who wishes to understand history, technology, warfare -- nearly every facet of life which depends on encrypted communications and their vulnerability. His gripping narrative will suck you in and hold you until the last page.

The Codebreakers is accessible to the lay reader without skimping on broad technical fundamentals. While cryptography is an oft written-about topic today, Kahn's enduring masterpiece is the ne plus ultra to which all others aspire.

It includes (almost) everything.......2005-08-17

David Kahn's 'The Codebreakers' is an outstanding survey of the history of
cryptology from the origins of the subject up to the Second World War. Kahn is
thorough, and though the details occasionally threaten to overwhelm the
narrative, in the end the threat is never realized. The book is a fine
achievement.

Despite the fact that it attempts to cover the entire history of the subject,
the center of mass of the chronology probably lies somewhere around 1925 -
that is, a large portion of the book is devoted to WWI and WWII. This is quite
appropriate, as these were the periods when cryptography blossomed in
complexity and interest, and equally importantly it is the period of greatest
*historical* interest to contemporary readers. But even so, Kahn casts his net
into some rarely explored corners: he does not neglect to discuss medieval
cryptography (lovers of medieval polyphony will not be surprised to learn that
a passion for intricate puzzles also animated the art of secret writing), he
devotes some pages to cryptography in non-Western societies, and he gives an
in-depth discussion of the U.S. intelligence services' activities on the day
of the Pearl Harbour attacks.

For me, the two best chapters of the book came after he had completed his main
narrative arc. One chapter, called "The Pathology of Cryptology", studies the
pseudo-science wing of cryptology: all those efforts to discover 'secret
meanings' in apparently non-secretive texts. The story of attempts to extract
from the text of Shakespeare's plays the latent confession that they had in fact
been written by Francis Bacon is hilarious and pitiful at once. And not only
Shakespeare: the Bible (Michael Drosnin's 'The Bible Code' is evidently only
the latest in a string of ill-considered efforts to turn the Holy Scripture
into a crystal ball), Dante, Homer, even Jonathan Swift have all, at one time
or another, been made marionette by would-be decoders who - let's be generous -
did not quite understand what they were doing.

Second, Kahn writes a chapter on the decipherment of ancient scripts, such as
Egyptian hieroglypics and the famous Greek script Linear B. This is a
fascinating subject, well told (though I think that Simon Singh's 'The Code
Book', which treats the same topic, is even better).

Anyone, however, who wishes to read this book should understand that it is
incomplete as to the modern history of the subject. This is no fault of the
book, for it was written in 1967. The most significant topics missed are,
first, the cracking of the Enigma cipher during WWII, which was not
declassified until after Kahn wrote, and, second, the very significant
developments in cryptography in the age of the computer and internet,
especially the new paradigm of public-key cryptography. (In fact this new
edition of the book does include a short new chapter on both of these topics,
but the treatment is cursory. Simon Singh, in his aforementioned book, does a
much more thorough and clearer job on these topics.)

Book Description

How important is it to know your enemyâ€™s secrets? The German victory at the Battle of Tannenberg in 1914, the entrance of the United States into World War I, the defeat of Nazi Germany, and the Soviet Unionâ€™s faster-than-anticipated development of the atomic bomb were all facilitated by stealing enemy secrets. Espionage and codebreaking have, throughout history, been instrumental in the rise, fall, and preservation of world powers. In Stealing Secrets, Telling Lies James Gannon provides the full story behind the critical intelligence breakthroughs that helped alter the course of history in the twentieth century. The interception of the Zimmerman Telegram, the deciphering of the German Enigma machine, the Sovietâ€™s damaging penetration of the British Foreign Service through the â€œCambridge Fiveâ€ spy ring, and the U.S. counterintelligence coup known as Operation Venona (still secret until 1995) are just some of the episodes detailed here.

Customer Reviews:

The influence of intelligence on 20th-century war and politics.......2005-12-12

This is a rare wonderful, non-sensationalized, well-documented account of the influence of intelligence efforts--from traditional spying, through cryptology and high tech--on political and military currents in the 20th century. A notable aspect of the overarching story is the regularity with which credit for intelligence successes has been misappropriated by the ambitious and ruthless.

Unusual Book...........2002-05-17

I really enjoyed Gannon's book. He wrote about areas that I knew very little about. The fact that the Polish Cryptanalysts were able to reverse engineer the Enigma machine with the help of the French who managed to get keys from a spy. The poles never got the credit they deserved for this, when they gave the Brits an Enigma machine the Brits made up several cover stories, i.e. the Poles hijacked a German army truck and stole the machine.
The book dispells the notion that the Allies were reading German communications line for line. There were several periods when the British did not have the German keys and in several cases they had to steal them from obscure weather stations that the Germans had near the Artic.
The book is very factual and concise. The author does not try to impress the reader with his knowledge.

Key Spies and Codebreakers of the Twentieth Century.......2001-11-03

Crisply written accounts of spies and codebreakers who helped shape turning points in the history of the last century.

Codebreakers: The Inside Story of Bletchley Park

Average customer rating:

narrativ collection, mixed quality and coverage
The Secret Weapon That Won The War
The Old Vets Gather for a Last Hurrah
Not really what I'd expected
Lots of good info; some topics missing

Codebreakers: The Inside Story of Bletchley Park

Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0198203276

Book Description

Familiar to anyone versed in the history of World War II or interested in the study of modern intelligence work, Bletchley Park was arguably the most successful intelligence operation in world history, the top secret workplace of the remarkable people who cracked Germany's vaunted Enigma
Code. Almost to the end of the war, the Germans had firm faith in the Enigma ciphering machine, but in fact the codebreakers were deciphering nearly 4,000 German transmissions daily by 1942, reaping a wealth of information on such important matters as the effort to resupply Rommel's army in North
Africa and the effect of Allied attempts to mislead the Germans about the location of D-Day landings. Indeed, Winston Churchill hailed the work of Bletchley Park as the "secret weapon" that won the war.
Only now, nearly half a century since the end of the Second World War, have any of the men and women in this group come forward to tell this remarkable story in their own words--a story that an oath of secrecy long prevented them from revealing. In Codebreakers, F.H. Hinsley and Alan Stripp
have gathered together twenty-seven first-hand accounts of one of the most amazing feats in intelligence history. These engaging memoirs, each written by a different member of the codebreakers team, recount the long hours working in total secrecy and the feelings of camaraderie, tension, excitement,
and frustration as these men and women, both British and American, did some of the most important work of the war. These talented people share not only their technical knowledge of cryptography and military logistics, but also poignant personal recollections as well. Walter Eytan, one of a handful
of Jews at Betchley Park, recalls intercepting a message from a German vessel which reported that it carried Jews "en route for Piraeus zur Endlosung (for the final solution)." Eytan writes "I had never heard this expression before, but instinctively, I knew what it must mean, and I have never
forgotten that moment." Vivienne Alford tells of her chilling memory of hearing that the atomic bomb had been dropped on Hiroshima, and the stillness that came over her and her co-workers in Naval Section VI. And William Millward confides that he is still haunted by the work he did in Hut 3 nearly
fifty years ago. "I sometimes wonder, especially during the night, how many sailors I drowned."
Few readers will finish this book without feeling that the codebreakers were essential to the outcome of the war--and thereby of major importance in helping to shape the world we live in today.

Customer Reviews:

narrativ collection, mixed quality and coverage.......2005-10-31

like some other reviewers, this wasn't what i was expecting, but i was reasonably pleased with what i found. this book is a series of narratives by various people who worked at GC&CS (later to become CGCHQ) and Bletchley Park during WWII. their stories typically recount how they were recruited, their nervousness, and their most memorable moments. some authors describe how the codebreaking operations worked, including some of the machinery, which itself was fascinating.

the whole book isn't all cryptographers and code breakers, some of it is written by WRNS (or Wrens, young women in the naval reserves) who assisted the operation. and not all contributions were truly seen as positive, the final story describes a woman who left feeling as though she had contributed little to shortening the war.

it's good that there are multiple perspectives, although some of the overlap in the tales gets a bit frustrating. still, the length of the typical piece means that the story is over before it drags on too long, and others you wish went on longer.

the organization is good, the stories are arranged to slowly immerse you into the work and the world of Bletchley Park in the war.

the book doesn't just cover engma operations at BP, it includes some tales of field operations (which sounded quite daring and thrilling), and some work to crack japanese naval codes (the last section focuses on this).

probably best in conjunction with an official history. lots of good references are listed in the book, and some nice diagrams to contribute to the technical side of things.

The Secret Weapon That Won The War.......2004-03-10

After a long period of silence, many books about the accomplishments of Allied forces in breaking the codes and ciphers of German, Italian and Japanese forces in World War II have been published over the last twenty years. Most of these books have been either written by one of the individuals who worked on a few of the specific enemy codes, or an editor who crafted a story by interviewing a number of people who were part of the Allied code breaking effort. Unlike most of other books on the subject, Code Breakers: The Inside Story of Bletchley Park is a collection of 30 first hand accounts about the daily grind and life at Bletchley Park and its outstations written by different individuals who worked there during WWII.

First, a little background about the subject of the book for those who may not be familiar the British code breaking activities in WWII. Government Code and Cypher School (GC&CS), the British organization responsible for intercepting and decoding foreign communications, was moved from London to Bletchley Park shortly before the start of WWII to provide a safer location. Bletchley Park (BP) started as a small operation with less than 100 people in 1939. By the end of the war, BP had broken almost all enemy ciphers and codes, including the formidable German mechanical encryption machines Enigma and Fish, and intercepted and decoded thousands of critical enemy messages that changed the course of the war. During this process, the headcount Bletchley Park had grown to more than seven thousand including some of the leading mathematicians in the world like Alan Turing.

Code Breakers: The Inside Story of Bletchley Park gives as a cross section of the different kinds of people who worked at BP between 1939 to 1945. We learn about how they were recruited, what they worked on, how they attacked the problems, how they felt and what the general atmosphere was like.

The Old Vets Gather for a Last Hurrah.......2001-09-19

When the gag order was finally lifted circa 1970 on the Bletchley Park operations, a lot of scientific, historical, and technical histories appeared. And there was a great hue and cry among military and political historians that the whole history of the British and American war against Hitlerian Germany would have to be rewritten. Well, much of that has been proven to be just hyperbole but it is generally agreed that the war was shortened by about two years. But the closer the Allies got to Germany the less role Bletchley played for the German forces used landlines for most strategic communications from mid 1944 on. Also they had another machine known as FISH which was not as easily read as Enigma. This book is a collection of personal narratives of life at Bletchley and how tedious most of the work there was, no matter how essential. Harry Hinsley, one of the authors, was a "whiz kid" recruited directly from university and after the war became a professor without ever completing his studies. Over the years he has written the monumental multivolume official history of British intelligence operations in WW II and many historical papers. Alan Stripp, was one of the original operatives and served for many years.

Not really what I'd expected.......2001-06-26

When I purchased this book I expected a coherent study of what Bletchley Park was like during its WWII heyday. I knew that its contents were derived from the collected input of a number of people who were at Bletchley at that time. It is actually a collection of short essays by these people. Each has a slightly different theme and focus. Some of the essay were quite interesting, but over all, I did not come away with any kind of coherent understanding of how Bletchley Park operated, what it was like to work there, etc. I wish there had been an over-arching narrative to tie the pieces together.

Lots of good info; some topics missing.......2001-01-11

This book is a set of essays by people who actually worked at Bletchley Park during World War II, and describes in some detail what they did. Much of it is dry reading. That's because real cryptology is mostly dry work; months of boredom interrupted by moments of joy or chagrin. For those who care about World War II cryptology this is a "must read," but read either the 1967 or the 1996 edition of David Kahn's "The Codebreakers" first; otherwise, some of this book won't make much sense, for lack of context.

Book Description

This is the first book to describe British wartime success in breaking Japanese codes of dazzling variety and great complexity which contributed to the victory in Burma three months before Hiroshima. Written for the general reader, this first-hand account describes the difficulty of decoding one of the most complex languages in the world in some of the most difficult conditions. The book was published in 1989 to avoid proposed legislation which would prohibit those in the security services from publishing secret information.

Customer Reviews:

Fine Narrative.......2001-09-19

The author was a cryptographer working out of Australia during WWW II. This is his personal narrative and an operational history combined. Not definitive because at the time of writing much documentation remained to be declassified. A worthwhile addition to a SIGINT collection.

Secret Worlds: Codebreakers (Secret Worlds)

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Secret Worlds: Codebreakers (Secret Worlds)
Simon Adams
Manufacturer: DK CHILDREN
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0789485303

Book Description

A fun, yet informative series that offers a chance to delve deep into a wide range of fascinating subjects from nature, history, and science. Full-color, fun, and crammed with facts, DK's Secret Worlds take a fresh look at familiar subjects with brilliant results! Kids age 9 and up can delve into a wide range of subjects from nature to history to science for researching school projects, sating a curious appetite, or just for the love of reading. Tried-and-tested Web sites and a mega-reference section are just two of the innovative features that will keep kids and parents coming back for more. Priced to collect, these dramatically designed books are a valuable addition to any child's bookshelf.

Station X: The Codebreakers of Bletchley Park

Average customer rating:

A must read!

Station X: The Codebreakers of Bletchley Park

Manufacturer: Channel 4 Book
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Codebreakers: The Inside Story of Bletchley Park

ASIN: 0752221892

Customer Reviews:

A must read!.......2006-05-17

Station X- Decoding Nazi Secrets is a must read. It reveals the complexities of the task that was laid before them of deciphering the Enigma Code. Included are some of the personality characteristics, politics, group function, as well as the more technical aspects of breaking the code.
It is a book that I have highlighted and use as a reference.
Truly captivating!

Hidden Codes & Grand Designs: A Codebreaker's Tour of Secret Societies

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Hidden Codes & Grand Designs: A Codebreaker's Tour of Secret Societies
Pierre Berloquin
Manufacturer: Sterling
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | World | History | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 1402728336

Book Description

Did the Masons encode messages in walls—and even in the street plan of Washington, D.C.? Does the Hebrew Bible conceal hidden mysteries? Ingenious methods for encoding secrets have taken many amazing turns through the ages, from the military signals the Romans flashed from hilltop to hilltop, to the computer codes that guard your cash at the ATM. Pierre Berloquin, one of France's leading puzzle book authors, takes you on a tour of them all in a book full of astonishing historical insights. With more than 150 brain-teasing problems for readers to solve for themselves, this is a journey beyond the gee-whiz and deep into the how-to of codes, ciphers, and other secret communication systems.

Book Description

With these two volumes, Richard Hovannisian completes his definitive history of the first independent Armenian state in modern times and provides the basis for comparison with the new Armenian republic established in 1991 after seven decades of Soviet rule. Based on Armenian, Russian, Turkish, German, Italian, French, and English-language archival materials, these volumes provide the first comprehensive, multidimensional analysis of this critical turning point in Armenian history--a period clouded in misinformation and controversy.

Customer Reviews:

Definitive History of Armenia from 1918-1921.......2003-08-15

This volume is the fourth of a series that provides a comprehensive analysis of the history of Armenia during a critical period in time. We get a clear idea of the key factors that ultimately led to the Sovietization of the first independent Armenian state. If you want to know in detail about the key conflicts between Armenians and Turks such as the battles at Sardarabad and Kars as well as the historic claims to Western Armenia then you should definitely read these books. You will also get a clear picture of history repeating itself in terms of the Armenian/Azerbaijani conflict and the role of Allied countries such as England and France. Highly recommended.

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