The Science of Secrecy: The Secret History of Codes and Codebreaking - Hardcover

Singh, Simon

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1841154350 ISBN 13: 9781841154350

Publisher: Fourth Estate, 2000

Synopsis

A TV tie-in edition of The Code Book filmed as a prime-time five-part Channel 4 series on the history of codes and code-breaking and presented by the author.

The Science of Secrecy, which accompanies the major Channel 4 series of the autumn, brings to life the hidden history of codes and code breaking. Since the birth of writing, there has also been the need for secrecy. The story of codes is the story of the brilliant men and women who used mathematics, linguistics, machines, computers, gut instinct, logic and detective work to encrypt and break these secrect messages and the effect their work has had on history.

Each episode of The Science of Secrecy Simon Singh tells us a fascinating story from the history of codes: how the course of Crimean War was changed by the cracking of ‘unbreakable ‘ Vigenere code; how the well-timed cracking of a single encoded telegram altered the course of World War One or how the mysteries of the Rosetta stone were revealed.

The Science of Secrecy also investigates present day concerns about privacy on the internet and public key cryptography and looks to the future and the possibilities that quantum computing will radically change the science of secrecy in the 21st century.

About this title

Review:

Secret codes are perennially, and universally, fascinating. Remember using lemon-juice to write invisible messages? What about the thrill of inventing your own private language? Something in the idea of occult information appeals to the 007 that lurks in every psyche.

Author and TV producer Simon Singh has now taken this symptomatically human trait and turned it into a TV series tied in to this entertaining book. In form, the first half of The Science of Secrecy is a zippy history of codes and ciphers (Spartan stick-ciphers, Roman shift-ciphers, a whole tradition of Muslim cipherologists), married to a closer analysis of notable code crackings of the past. Singh ably tells the fascinating tale of how the encoded assassination plans of Mary Queen of Scots were decrypted by Queen Elizabeth's embryonic MI5.

The second half concentrates on 20th-century code cracking. To judge by Singh, the Brits won both the Great War and the Second World War because of expert code busting. In 1914-18 it was by deciphering an incriminating German telegram, which brought America militarily onside; in 1939-45 it was by employing the most brilliant of crypto-boffins at Bletchley Park, who, via the Colossus decryption computer, ensured the Allies were always able to second guess the Nazi war machine.

The final section of the book, which describes attempts to encrypt--and decrypt--the Web, underlines why codes are of crucial topicality. Should vital material on the Net be encoded, or does that infringe free exchange of information, the very essence of cyberspace? Singh offers a readable, lucid and well informed take on this, much as he tackles every other subject in his diverting and illuminating book. --Sean Thomas

Review:

'Fermat's Last Theorem was an unexpected bestseller. The Code Book will, I'm confident, be an expected bestseller. The new book possesses all the qualities of its predecessor.' -- Evening Standard

'Singh has the knack of making the frightening world of number theory seem like child's play, there is more than enough here to interest the mathematically squeamish.' -- Daily Telegraph

'Singh's account combines readability with a more meaty level of technical analysis than any other have seen. His powers of explanation are as dazzling as ever.' -- Guardian

'[Singh tells] these stories with infectious relish. He alternates between explanation of how ciphers are constructed and can be cracked, and tales of the skulduggery surrounding them.' -- Sunday Times

About this edition

• Publisher: Fourth Estate
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 1841154350
• ISBN 13: 9781841154350
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 240