The Codebreakers: The Comprehensive History of Secret Communication from Ancient Times to the Internet,   ISBN:9780684831305

Customer Rating: 

As someone who has worked in the COMINT field, I can attest to the accuracy of Kahn's statement that "this kind of work [traffic analysis nearly as much as cryptanalysis] is perhaps the most excruciating, exasperating, agonizing mental process known. . ." I can also attest to the incompleteness of his book, but to describe what went on in the Cold War and Bletchley Park would require another 1000 pages. The first chapter, "One Day of Magic" is among the most riveting in the book, a vivid, suspenseful description of U.S. COMINT operations in late 1941. In some respects, nothing has changed. The Japanese military strategy in the days leading up to Pearl Harbor - total radio silence on the part of Yamamoto's strike force - was brilliant enough. It is forever impossible to extract intelligence from silence. Kahn also gives the reader step-by-step accounts of the thought processes of brilliant cryptanalysts such as the French Painvin as he single-handedly solves the diabolical German ADFGX system in the First World War. Kahn's book is an indispensable account of the role cryptanalysis has played and still plays in world history.

Customer Rating: 

I was a cyptologist in the military and later with the US State Department, and find this book to be very comprehensive in the roots of cryptology.

Customer Rating: 

Why anyone would give this book fewer than five stars is beyond me; THE CODEBREAKERS is the definitive history of cryptology. Its nearly 1200 pages tell the story of codes and ciphers from ancient Egypt to the NSA.

As other reviewers have pointed out, this book is for lay readers, not professionals, not mathematicians and programmers---unless they too want to read a great story. It's not a how-to book. It is, as its subtitle suggests, a history of the subject.

And it's a very engaging history. The research is breathtaking. Much of the narrative reads like a novel; a good example is the introductory chapter on Pearl Harbor. If secret writing fascinates you, if you've always wondered how ciphers were constructed, solved, and even hidden from view, you'll enjoy this book. It's a thorough exposition of an exciting and neglected subject, and it belongs in every reference collection. I consider THE CODEBREAKERS to be one of the great underrated nonfiction books in print.

Customer Rating: 

I first heard about this book when I was in high school learning about simple encryption (Caesar ciphers); my teacher had read the 1967 version and highly recommended it. The book came back into my life during a college symposium on the Enigma machine - again, it was highly recommended (this particular version). When I got the book, I was blown away... while cryptography purists might rate the book lower for its lack of mathematics, it contained a (relatively) complete overview of the history of codemaking and codebreaking in one package.

Later, in my professional years, I worked with folks from "No Such Agency" who either 1) knew the book and highly recommended it or 2) never heard of it, so I recommended it to them. I'm a big fan of signals intelligence (SIGINT) readings (technical and non-technical) and intelligence history books. If you are serious about the study of cryptography, learn about its origins and key moments in history by reading Kahn's "The Codebreakers." When you decide you want to "do" what is mentioned in the book... join the National Security Agency. We'll be waiting for you...

Customer Rating: 

This was recommended to me as the authoritative and best introduction to cryptography for anyone interested in Encryption. I'm a programmer, and that particular recommendation didn't take my profession into account. Apparently.

This is a history book. Sure, I expected to read some historical context. I expected to learn that the first encryption techniques were simple dictionary ciphers. I expected to learn about Da Vinci's reverse writing. I expected to learn about rotating keys and the Enigma machine.

But that's not what I found in this book. This book exemplifies why I hated history in school. This is a book for the type of pseudo-intellectual who prefers to learn about people who know something special, rather than learning something special, themselves. Seriously, how can anyone read a book this big about a subject (cryptography) that provides them with absolutely no usable knowledge on that topic. Nothing. Nada. Zip.