The Code Book

This book makes me jealous as the author has an incredible ability to communicate the densest of topics (Cryptography) in an engaging, wonderful way.

It draws you in and you find yourself transported to battlefields and war rooms of the past. I’ve always taken cryptography for granted - I type https into my browser and navigate to a site and all’s well. I know things are reasonably secure - but why?

It turns out that RSA, the algorithm that underpins things like SSL and SSH, is a landmark of human achievement and did something that millennia of mathematicians and… show more.

This is the first book I read about cryptography, and one that got me excited to study this field more seriously. If you’re not mathematically inclined, or if you are and want to learn the history of cryptography, you’ll love The Code Book. Well documented, clearly written, the book retraces the evolution of cryptography from ancient ciphers to public-key cryptography through historical events where cryptography played a major role, including the famous case of the Enigma encryption machine during WW2. Singh doesn’t shy away from explaining ciphers’ internal mechanisms, in a way that is accessible to lay readers and… show more.

First and foremost, The Code Book is a gripping read. It revisits some of the most influential moments in history when cryptography played a role in changing the world. I first read this book as a junior cryptographic researcher and it was the moment I realized that the subject I was studying was not just interesting from a professional standpoint, but was important for the whole world. I also loved that Simon Singh could take complicated technical concepts and convey them to a general audience. More than two decades later, cryptography is dramatically more important than it was when The… show more.

Rarely can a book intertwine the inner workings, history, and applications of something--particularly when that something is a complicated topic like cryptography. But Simon Singh pulls it off with style. The Code Book delves into the history of ciphers, how they have been used, and how they have impacted history, from the 1500s through today. It also explains how these ciphers actually work, using language and illustrations that do not require a PhD in mathematics to understand. You will come away with a greater understanding and appreciation for how cryptography makes us more secure.